[Music] this was four years ago when i was an 18 year old college student and where i'm from may is finals month i spent yet another late night in the campus library until closing time which in may is 11 pm instead of 10 pm since everyone's up late studying i had to call an uber to my off-campus apartment since i had arrived with a friend who left hours before me and i didn't have my car with me i was out in the library parking lot at 11 15 when the uber pulled up it was a
great toyota camry the driver's name was adam he greeted me as normal and i sat in the back seat diagonal from him he looked to be in his mid forties for the first five minutes of the ride there were no words exchanged between the two of us but then he started to ask me questions his first question was if i was a student which seemed to rather pointless question since i was just picked up from a college library next he asked how my classes are going then how old i was i didn't like that question
i lied and said i was 23 instead of 18. at this point i noticed he would constantly look at me through the rearview mirror as he spoke and when he would finish what he was saying he had this weird creepy smirk on his face his questions were getting a little too personal for someone whose sole relationship with me was supposed to be my driver for 10 to 15 minutes he asked how my dating life at school is and as much as i wanted to just flat out ignore his question i said it wasn't bad i
should have lied and said i had a boyfriend but for whatever reason i didn't think of saying that he transitioned from questions to making comments like that he used to be a huge cheater in college and asked if i ever cheated i nervously laughed and said once or twice he then made it even weirder to no surprise and asked if i'd ever cheated on a boyfriend i said no at this point we were stopped at a red light i tried my best to avoid looking at the rear view mirror but i was too curious and
snuck a peek he was looking at me he made a comment that i was very pretty i knew it was coming eventually and it still was incredibly creepy i didn't acknowledge it there were two minutes left in the ride when i noticed he made a left turn instead of a right turn at one of the intersections so i spoke up and told him he went the wrong way then he said he knows he just has to stop at his place real quick to get something i asked him to please just drop me off first but
he insisted his house was a minute away and apparently it was he stopped in front of the house and said we're here and he turned to me and asked if i wanted to come in saying he had alcohol and food in case i wanted to release some stress after studying i didn't even know what to say i wanted to get out of the car and run but i was scared to i said please just take me home he chuckled and said he'd be right back he went into his house and that was when i got
out from the car and started to run no i didn't think he had plans to murder me but something was off about him and the situation and i just wanted to get out of there moments later i felt my phone vibrate it was a message from adam the driver saying you know i have your address hot stuff that just made me run even faster i cancelled the ride just so he wouldn't be able to contact me anymore i made it back to my apartment in a few minutes running with my backpack was hard but thank
god i do my cardio my apartment was the left side of a duplex that adam guy wasn't parked in front of my house by the time i got back so i hoped maybe he just wouldn't come i filled out a form on uber.com titled report a serious incident with a driver and i just gave all the details of the trip and included a screenshot of his message threatening that he had my address uber contacted me the next day stating the driver was removed from the platform and should there be any further contact that i should
contact the authorities well the next night when my roommate wasn't home because she was spending the night with the guy she was talking to there was a knock at the front door followed by the doorbell it was like eight to nine pm so it was kind of late for solicitors or anything like that i called through the door who is it the man's voice on the other side said i found something that belongs to you i asked who is this and what did you find their response was just open up i'll show you the voice
was familiar i looked through the window next to the door and i saw adam the uber driver hiding to the side of the door like he was pressed flat up against the wall and he was holding something i couldn't tell what i ran for my phone to call 9-1-1 and sparing them all the details i just begged for police to get to my apartment immediately but by the time police arrived in front of the duplex the knocks had long since stopped he was gone at least off the front porch but i imagine he saw the
police cars in front of the house because he never returned after that there was this whole following up with the uber report and the police now but since there was no proof that it was adam at the front door i couldn't even press charges the semester was over anyway the lease was up and i moved back home for summer i left no trace for that atom guy to ever find me again at least i don't think i did this story still haunts me to this day almost every day i used to be an uber driver
as my second job usually late at night like bar closing hours it was a saturday night around 3 a.m i was a couple hours into my uber driving night and i got a call from across town to pick someone up on a street corner in came some guy african-american mid-20s he had dreadlocks i noticed a small tattoo on his neck but i didn't look much longer than that i asked how his night's going and he just grunted happens not everyone's super friendly i confirmed the address he gave me which appeared to be a house and
he just said yeah about a minute into the drive he got a little aggressive and concerned that i apparently made a wrong turn because he thought i was taking a longer route i assured him that i was just following the route that the app was giving me and he calmed down like 10 seconds later he asked me if i'm feeling lucky and i asked what do you mean he follows that with i mean how much do you value your life son nobody really values what they got i didn't like where this was going i responded
that i appreciate my life and kids every single day he went silent after that for a while then he started saying some things at such a low volume that i didn't know if he was talking to me or not so i asked what was that he replied nothing fool just get me to where i gotta be i asked where is it we're heading anyway he replied i just gotta take care of some unfinished business i really really didn't know what to make of that answer but i wasn't looking to continue that conversation or dig any
deeper than i had already dug we pulled up to some corner in a rather poverty-stricken area not an area i typically did any drop-offs or pickups the guy said i can you wait here for me i froze for a second confused i asked do you need to ride back somewhere he replied yeah this'll be quick i just got to take care of some unfinished business first i didn't want to drive this guy anywhere else and i had a feeling whatever he was about to do in this house wasn't good based on his unfinished business comment
i didn't want to be the getaway driver after some kind of fight or altercation so i said yeah i'll be waiting here but i had no intentions of waiting the ride was marked as complete on my end anyway he shut the car door and approached the house but he wasn't approaching the front door he went to the back of the house by the backyard i didn't stick around after that i drove off after about 20 seconds slowly and quietly so he wouldn't hear me taking off i chose to end my shift that night right then
and there i was pretty sketched out the next day i heard something on the news that changed a part of me forever there were two people shot in their home in the town i dropped that guy off the night before as the news report went on they showed a picture of the suspected shooter and he was the guy i dropped off at that house he was apprehended fleeing the scene not too far away after neighbors reported hearing gunshots the shooting was suspected to be gang-related i have forever blamed myself for this partially having been the
one to drive someone with intentions of murdering people to his destination to commit his heinous act people have told me if it wasn't me it would have been another uber driver but i still can't help but feel partially to blame for this and not picking up on the red flags in that car ride [Music] it was a stormy night the first thunderstorm of the year this was after my night shift ended at 4 am and i had to call a lift to the train station since i didn't have my car at the time i waited
outside the place i bartended at at the time under the front patio to avoid getting soaked the car pulled down the empty street and stopped in front of the bar i had to check the lift app to ensure it was the correct car and it was a grey honda civic i got in and greeted the driver whose name was sahil i attempted to get in the front seat at first but he told me not to and to sit in the back that was only the second time i ever tried sitting in the front that was
before i realized it was customary to sit in the back seat from the bar to the train station it was about 10 minutes the reason i was taking the train instead of just ubering the whole way to my house is because i'd be saving about 40 bucks the driver was going very slow but there was nothing weird about that given the weather outside i would expect anyone to drive cautiously in a torrential downpour like this one the driver didn't take the highway route he took us down the side roads i wasn't concerned about missing my
train though i had plenty of time i wasn't concerned until the driver said something under his breath and then pulled the car to the side of the road i looked up from my phone to see why and saw a man in the pouring rain waving his hands in the air i almost asked if he was stopping to pick him up but i just observed and yes the man on the street got in the back passenger seat next to me he was soaking wet he kept his black hood on in the car i scooted all the
way over to the left i was expecting the man and the driver to exchange some kind of words but they didn't did they know each other i had no idea what was going on during the ride i felt in the corner of my eyes the feeling of that man next to me looking at me maybe he was looking out my window so i shot a quick half second glance to him but i was wrong he was looking at me on top of it as the drive progressed i started paying more attention to the route we
were taking it wasn't the right way to the train station i tried to sneak a peek at the driver's phone screen to see if maybe he was following some incorrect route but he seemed to have his phone on his lap unlike most lyft drivers who had their phones mounted on the dashboard i politely said i think we're going the wrong way he replied something in such a low tone mixed with a thick accent that i had a hard time understanding it by the third time i asked him to repeat himself i finally just repeated myself
and said we're going the wrong way i confirmed this by checking the map on my phone the driver didn't acknowledge me i felt as though the guy next to me was inching closer every minute he also wouldn't stop staring at me eventually i asked the driver to pull over and cancel the ride no acknowledgement the driver was blowing stop signs and there were no stop lights anywhere on these side roads so i didn't really have a good time to escape but i knew i was about to be their victim of something this was some kind
of trap so i decided i was going to jump out of the car when i had the chance i waited till we were on a street with woods on one side which was perfect for me to make my escape the car was going probably 15 to 20 miles per hour i opened the car and jumped out the two men scream stuff in a different language guessing to each other my impact with the ground was obviously painful but i think the layer of water on the street might have cushioned my fall a little bit the car
completely stopped and i saw the man who was next to me get out i had to get on my feet and run into the woods i heard him chasing after me for a little bit but there was no shot he'd find me i heard him yell something back to the car it sounded like it was in russia then he ran back to the car and they drove off i immediately called an uber instead of a lift this time and this time i was brought safely to the train station while on the train i went ahead
and filed an online police report and then contacted lyft and reported the driver the next day i also went to the police station and reported the whole incident but here's where the bomb was dropped there was a grey honda civic reported stolen just the night before i gave them every last detail i could remember and eventually i was on my way i left that police station contemplating my life and just how narrowly i may have escaped with my life you