What to Know
- A 22-year-old woman says she was raped by a man who drove up to her after she had requested a Lyft ride
- The man raped the woman and then dropped her off in Kips Bay
- Uber and Lyft apps often show a photo of the driver's face and display the license number of his or her vehicle as a way to verify the ride
A woman says she was raped in Manhattan by a man masquerading as a Lyft driver.
The 22-year-old woman was near 17th Street and Seventh Avenue early Wednesday when she requested a Lyft around 2 a.m., police said.
A man in a black SUV pulled up a short time later and claimed to be her driver. She got in the SUV and they drove off.
But instead of taking her where she had requested to go, the woman says the man drove her to another location, where he raped her. He then dropped her off in Kips Bay. She was taken to an area hospital for treatment.
The man who picked her up remains at large.
“That’s really terrifying,” Gramercy resident Alexandra Trucios-Cruz said.
Trucios-Cruz says that when she requests an Uber or Lyft car, she checks to make sure there's a sign of the respective company on the vehicle.
Local
The Uber and Lyft apps also usually show you a photo of the driver’s face, along with his or her name and the vehicle’s license plate number.
Just this week, 31-year-old Uber driver Al-quon Hopkins was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in her own driveway in Wyckoff, New Jersey.
“It’s definitely frightening — it is scary to hear something like that happen,” Gramercy resident Christina Koutsourades said.
Lyft has not responded to a request for comment.
