A user on TikTok is calling out Uber after she says she caught a driver ‘pleasuring himself’ while driving her to her home.
In a video with over 326,000 views, TikTok user Tay (@taylapimlott) says she had ordered an Uber for a 10-minute drive home. However, when the driver pulled up, she immediately felt like something was strange about the ride.
“The Uber driver pulled up at this weird angle, like, kind of preventing me from getting into the backseat,” she recalls. “Looking back, it’s like he wanted me in the front, but I still wiggled my way around and got in the backseat.”
While the beginning of her ride was normal, she soon noticed something startling and upsetting happening in the front seat.
“I looked over and I saw this man had his thing out completely,” she states. “It was completely out and he was pleasuring himself.”
Understandably, Tay panicked, unsure of how she could resolve the situation without causing further danger to herself. Eventually, she decided to document what the man was doing by filming him on Snapchat and sending it to several friends, while also sharing her location with her mother and boyfriend.
“That way, if something happened, they have the evidence,” she explains. “Like, if he took my phone or anything like that, they have the evidence.”
When Tay arrived home, she says the driver initially refused to unlock the door.
“So I was like, ‘Oh, could you unlock the door, please?’” Tay says. “And he was like—he turned around to me and he looked me dead in the eye, and he goes, ‘Thank you very much,’ in the most perverted voice I have ever heard in my life. And then he proceeded to turn around, unlock the door.”
It was at this moment that Tay realized the driver was also taking a screenshot of her address.
Tay then states that the driver did not leave the front of her house until her mother confronted him, at which point he departed. Tay claims she immediately reported the incident to Uber.
@taylapimlott psa @Uber do better #uber #triggerwarning #fyp #Australia #adelaide #stortime #indecentexposure ♬ original sound – Tayrah152
While Tay says that Uber “insinuat[ed]” that she should not go to the police and that the company could handle the issue, Tay decided to go to the authorities.
“They ended up arresting him. He got bail the same night,” she says. “But when they confronted him about it and asked why he did it, his excuse was, ‘I was itchy.’ That was a very long itch, but okey dokey.”
Tay then learned that the man was not Australian and was in the country on a visa; she states that the police contacted the visa office to try to “get him banned from ever using rideshare as a way to make income.” The man was also banned from going near Tay’s home, work, or her person.
Continuing the conversation with Uber, Tay says she forwarded the videos to the company and was able to secure a refund for the ride. However, when she asked if the man had been removed from being able to offer rides, she was told that the information concerning that issue could not be shared for privacy reasons.
However, upon looking into the man’s background, Tay discovered something shocking.
“The thing is, he has been arrested in the past for something similar, and he was an Uber driver,” she says. Later, she adds, “Like, don’t you do a background check? Are you telling me you did a background check? You saw that this guy’s been arrested for doing something inappropriate in front of women, and you thought, ‘Yeah, he’s gonna be good for our company’?”
@taylapimlott @Uber do better part 2 he was #arrested before for something similar #uber #storytime #indecentexposure #fyp #adelaide #australia #choosethebear ♬ original sound – Tayrah152
In the comments section, users shared their support for Tay, with some offering their own advice.
“If I’m the only one in an Uber- I ONLY get in the front. You can’t child lock a front seat and you have the ability to grab the wheel or handbreak if you need to,” said a user.
“You handled this surprisingly well. Kudos to you for having the presence of mind to collect evidence whilst being actively traumatized. PoS man,” offered another.
“You did all the right things – any kind of confrontation could have ended the trip very differently. Hope the police follow it up,” stated a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to Tay via Instagram direct message and Uber via email.
Update 12:29pm CT May 15: In an email to the Daily Dot, an Uber spokesperson shared the following:
“What’s been reported has no place in the Uber community or anywhere else. As soon as we were notified of this report, we removed the driver partner’s access to the app immediately and permanently.
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