One Weird Uber ride

Bharathi Shekar
Aug 26, 2017 · 6 min read

Uber provides more than 15 million rides globally every day and one ride in that 15 million is just a drop in the ocean. But what if that one ride was a really weird one! Here is one such weird ride.

The short story: An Uber driver abused me, stole my car keys and left me high and dry on a rainy night in Bangalore.

The story is long, so I split it into “The Beginning”, “The Middle”, “The End” and “The Twist”. If you just want the meat of the story, read “The Middle” and “The Twist”.

The Beginning:

I was driving back home from office on the rainy night of 23rd August 2017 in my hatchback. I was going through a narrow one-way road from Sakra hospital towards Devarabisanahalli junction at around 8:45 PM IST. There was bumper to bumper traffic at this junction. My car got rear-ended at the junction where the one-way road almost came to an end. The exact lat-long is https://www.google.co.in/maps/@12.9303802,77.6850067,20z . The thud was pretty mild, but I thought I will get out to check what happened. In no time, someone was banging my window hard and was gesturing me. I opened my window to hear the guy out and the next thing I knew the guy pulled out my car keys. I had barely spoken a word and here was a guy who was walking away with my keys (and I don’t have a fall-back set). I got down immediately and realized the guy had rear-ended my car. The guy was abusive and pointed me to a damage in his car. He pointed me to two black scratch marks in his white Indica and I immediately realized that this damage could not due to this accident. My car is a grey colored Hyundai i10 (even the bumper is grey) and my bumper did not even have a scratch. The guy was yelling at the top of his lungs and not at all having a conversation. I told him that we should settle the issue after parking our cars aside to unblock the traffic, and he kept insisting that we go to police station. What I completely failed to fathom was two things: (a) why the guy was in such a rush to take my keys, especially when my car was completely stationary and (b) why he was hyper and yelling at the top of his voice in an accident where neither of our cars were damaged. My reading, in hindsight, is that he probably wanted me to pay him for a damage from an earlier accident. Or, he probably was having a frustrating day driving for Uber and the minor accident was a perfect way for him to vent his pent up angst. Anyways, that is a secondary point. The more important point is that the guy was having my car keys, was abusing me and we had managed to completely clog the one-way traffic. On top of that, it was raining like hell and we were completely drenched (My Woodland shoes were filled with rain water and it was getting difficult to walk).

The Middle:

After one of the onlookers intervened, the guy finally realized that we should park our cars nearby and then settle this. He takes his car and parks it a little further. He walks out of his car and walks towards my car when I remind him that he has my car keys. He checks his pockets and then goes back to his car to bring my car keys. He gets in, quickly starts his car and starts driving away. I watch in total shock as the car picks up speed. Here was a guy who was running away with my car keys (and I don’t have a fall-back set). I run as fast as I can (Remember, my shoes are filled with water from the rain and running is quite a task). Thanks to traffic, I reach the car and start banging the window as hard as I can. When the guy opens the window, I start yelling at him to give my car keys back. He yells back at me “What car keys? Your car keys should be with you, why will they be with me?”. I was completely aghast at what I had just heard. At a loss of words for a few seconds, I then get back to yelling at him. I insisted that he had my keys. Another onlooker who followed us asked the guy to hand over the keys to me so that the traffic could be cleared. A lady and a gentleman sitting in the car were getting impatient (It is around 9:05 PM IST) and they request us to settle this argument post completing their ride. It was then that I realized I was arguing with an Uber driver. The lady passenger had a fractured arm and informed me that their drop location was just 5 minutes away. I reluctantly agreed to accompany them to complete the ride. In the short trip, the passengers crib with me how pathetic Uber services are in Bangalore, while I am in complete shock dealing with the driver. We drop the passengers. The lat-long now is https://www.google.co.in/maps/@12.9195664,77.6854362,20z?hl=en . The bill is INR 117, but the passengers insist that the upfront fare was much lower (around INR 50). The passengers handover cash & disembark and I see the driver marking himself off-road in the Uber Driver app. I calm myself down and start looking for the keys in the car. I don’t find it in the car. The driver again starts telling me that he did not take my car keys. At this point, I start insisting that we go back to the junction where the incident happened and we drive back. I take a picture of his license plate before we start.

The End:

We reach the spot where my car still lays with traffic at the one-way junction completely coming to a halt. I insist that we find the keys and the driver says he did not take the keys. By now, the onlookers grow impatient and start pointing fingers at the Uber driver. Two of them come forward and tell the driver that they saw him take the keys from my car. The onlookers start yelling at him and he accepts that he took the car keys. It is still raining, but we search the place around for the keys. We don’t find them and everyone gives up. The onlookers help me push the car and that clears some traffic (without the keys, the steering wouldn’t work and all we can do is push the car a little bit ahead).

I realize that I am in a hopeless situation by now and call up a towing company. In the meanwhile, the Uber driver calms down, but continuously requests that he be let go as he can’t help me much. He starts talking about how poor he is as a driver and that he can’t help me in this situation. We exchange mobile numbers and he leaves. The time is 10:00 PM IST and the towing vehicle is 120 minutes away from my location.

The Twist:

Obviously, I reported this incident to Uber (just copy-pasted the same content) on their website. They called me back after 24 hours and took the driver details (name, mobile number and license plate number). They wanted a screenshot of the license place and I provided the same. The customer service representative on the phone told me “Sorry sir, but this car is not registered with us and we can’t find a driver with this mobile number who is registered with us. We will check and get back to you soon.”.

Wow!! Now that was quite a twist. An Uber ride just vanished from their records. How does it matter? It is just a drop in the ocean after all!

)
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade