When You’re an Uber Driver, and Your Passenger Gets Arrested
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Here’s what happens, well, kind of
I’ve been driving Uber off and on for the last 7.5 years; yep, that’s right, 7.5 years! I was one of the first drivers here in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I’ve seen many changes and none for the better. And up until a while ago, I never had someone arrested, but it was bound to happen, right?
I get the “ping.” It’s at a high-end hotel on the east side of Cincinnati, and I automatically think “airport.” Once you have been in this game enough, you can pretty much predict where the trip will take you based on the locations you pick up. I don’t have the luxury of seeing where my rides are heading because I don’t keep my acceptance rate above 90%. News flash for any newbies out there; if you are accepting 9/10 rides to get the prestige Platinum status, well, you will go broke and run your car to the junkyard in record time; more on that in another article.
So, I pull up to the hotel, and I see a lady approaching my car in a suit, her dark hair covering her shoulders, carrying sunglasses. She was super sleek and super intimidating. I was like, “what the hell? Is she FBI or someone from the mob?”
As she gets closer, she walks off to the right, gets in a black SUV with tinted windows, and drives off. So, not my passenger. I wait, and here comes another girl. Her profile said her name was Kelly. She walks out and stands under the awning looking at her phone. She is a slender blond, and by the looks of it, she’s been around the block a few times, to say the least. It’s tough to be non-judgemental at times in this profession. I am sure it has saved my ass on more than one occasion. But I opened my window and asked her name. I confirm it’s Kelly, and off we go.
When she gets in, I ask her how her day is going, and she says, “okay.” She is timid. So I took the lead and just kept my mouth shut. On our way to the highway, we passed a gas station. She asked to stop, but she wasn’t quick enough; I missed the station. She said, no worries, we can stop at the one on the west side of Cincinnati where I was taking her. No biggie, I thought.
