A man driving for Uber, the ride-sharing company, has been arrested by Los Angeles Police for allegedly kidnapping a woman he picked up for a ride.
KCLA reports that Frederick Dencer, 32, was charged Monday with kidnapping a 26-year-old woman with the intention of sexually assaulting her. He is being held on $1 million bail. Dencer apparently picked up the woman, whose identity hasn’t been released, on Sunday night at a nightclub near West Hollywood and took her to a Panorama City motel. According to the KCLA report the woman slipped away and called 911 after waking up next to the man. She told police she didn’t recall how she had arrived at the motel. Police arrived at the motel and arrested Dencer.
Investigators believe Dencer, who is from Encino, was at Greystone Manor, which is 643 La Cienega Blvd. near West Hollywood, when he picked the woman up. It isn’t clear whether the woman solicited the ride through Uber or met Dencer at Greystone.
“Had this been an official Uber assignment, Dencer would have received the victim’s home address with the fare, but in this case [she] was too drunk to tell him,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
“Uber became aware this afternoon of a serious incident in Los Angeles,” said Sarah Maxell of Uber. “The facts are unknown at this stage, and it’s certainly unclear that this is an Uber-related incident, as the driver in question was not logged in, connected to or operating on the platform at the time. We have reached out to authorities and will work with them to help uncover the facts. It is also our policy to immediately suspend a driver’s account following any serious allegations, which we have done. Nothing is more important to Uber than the safety of our riders.”
OSCAR Your using information later published. Since UBER drivers use their own vehicles how would the victim know if he was on duty or off. UBER states he wasn’t signed on. But using later published information a person from the club recognized him as a UBER driver and assumed he would transport the young lady to her home. Unless a taxi driver owns his own vehicle he would not have access to a taxi on his night off. Why your not in favor of UBER drivers having background checks? With the knowledge I have concerning the Taxi industry even with… Read more »
Mike Dunn–duh . . . .
Mike, can you read? He wasn’t even driving for Uber at the time this happened. This could be the same with a taxi driver on his night off. Would you blame the taxi company?
This is a good reason why UBER and other companies like it should be regulated like the TAXI industry is.
Man how times have changed. i can remember many a morning in my bar hopping days, when i would wake up in the morning in a strange motel or apartment next to someone I didn’t remember even meeting. I never thought of it as being kidnapped, just as a drinking problem on my part.