Cops Say Alabama Man Posed As Uber Driver and Abducted Women
Peter D'Abrosca
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Adding to mounting problems for the ride sharing titan, an Alabama man was arrested on two felony kidnapping charges after allegedly posing as an Uber driver and abducting young women.
“Tommy Wayne Beard, 62, targeted young women who became inebriated after spending time at bars in Tuscaloosa,” according to The Smoking Gun.
In March, Beard was arrested when police noticed a “suspicious vehicle” parked on the side of the road. Police questioned Beard, who was allegedly wearing “fully erect artificial male genitalia,” when they noticed a young woman passed out in his back seat. Beard told police that he was an Uber driver and was taking the young woman home.
Officers woke the woman, a University of Alabama student, who told them that she could not recall leaving the bar, but that her home was only a half-mile from the bar she left. Beard allegedly drove her seven miles from the bar, and was stopped by police only a quarter mile from his residence.
When police arrested Beard, they confiscated his phone which allegedly contained lewd photos of another young woman in the back seat of his car, and helped them “identify two additional female victims,” one of whom was found walking in the woods alone last year, unable to recall how she’d gotten there.
Uber is reeling from the recent death of a passenger who entered the vehicle of a fake driver in South Carolina, and was later murdered. The company is attempting to implement new safety standards that will ensure riders enter the correct vehicle.
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