A word of caution to ride-hailing passengers: Be careful when you hitch a ride from a stranger.
Facebook user Eddy Ong recently took to Facebook to share his encounter with a female victim who was robbed. According to him, the lady passenger was abandoned by the side of the road after being robbed by her Uber driver.
According to reports, the pregnant woman had book an Uber ride to Puchong Jaya from Mid Valley at approximately 9:30pm on Sunday (21st May). To her horror, she was threatened at knifepoint when the vehicle arrived at One Puchong business centre. She was then forced to hand over her valuable belongings.
Eddy Ong was driving past a road junction when he noticed the female victim waving frantically at him; asking for help. The lady shared that she frequently relies on Uber for transportation around the city and never thought such a terrifying incident would happen to her.
Serdang Deputy OCPD Supt Lee Wai Leong has since confirmed the robbery. “We have obtained information on the suspect and driver and are tracing them,” he was quoted as saying.
You can read Eddy Ong’s Facebook post here:
As at time of writing, the Facebook post has been shared more than 6700 times. Several netizens have reached out and suggested for riders to review the Uber driver’s ratings before hitching a ride. Uber has yet to respond to the above news.
What do y’all think? How can we be more careful when hitching a ride from a ride-sharing app?
UPDATE (23rd May, 3:45pm):
Uber is unable to comment on the aforementioned case at the moment, but we did receive a response from the company.
It reads:
“We are unable to comment on this specific case given that it is an ongoing investigation. We are cooperating with the authorities with their investigation and would like to assure the public takes safety very seriously.
“We facilitate millions of rides in Malaysia every week and even 1 incident like this is 1 too many. Please know that we work continuously to improve, so that riders get from point A to B safely, reliably and affordably each time.”
UPDATE (26th May):
The Uber driver responsible for robbing a pregnant passenger on 21st May, has been apprehended.
According to The Star, the 22-year-old suspect from Kedah was arrested on Wednesday (24th May) at the Pagoh R&R in Johor after the police force was successful in tracing his whereabouts. He is currently being investigated under armed robbery and will be remanded until 31st May.
Serdang deputy OCPD Supt Lee Wai Leong also revealed that the suspect had a previous criminal record.
Sources: Eddy Ong’s Facebook via Lowyat forum, The Star, China Press.
