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Uber driver propositions reporter for oral sex; locks her in at her destination

Boston.com's Alison Pohle reports on an incident in one guy's Uberized Honda Element.

Uber at first told her the driver would receive "coaching opportunities" on how not to make women passengers feel like they're about to be raped, then, after her story went up, announced he was no longer an Uber driver.

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Comments

What a horrifying experience for Pohle. I'm glad she got out without him actually touching her, but that's pretty harrowing.

I read Missed Connections pretty often, and there have been quite a few from male Uber drivers to their female passengers. It's enough to convince me never to take an Uber by myself: something about being alone with a strange man in his own car seems like a recipe for disaster.

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this is why I stopped taking taxis when traveling by myself before Uber was a thing. In no other situation would you stand on a street corner, wave up your hand, and get in the car with the first strange man who happens to stop. On top of that, I've seen cabbies behave awfully (fistfights on the street over fares, etc.) and I felt uncomfortable getting in a car with persons of that occupation.

Even though Uber is susceptible to the same problems, I'd rather get in an Uber, because at least when there IS an issue, there is a record of the trip and a log of the driver's information for me to file a proper complaint.

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I never take cabs alone, either, unless there's absolutely no other option.

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And there's a background check before they are licensed. If you think you are safer in an uber vehicle, you're sorely mistaken.

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And how difficult is it to get a hold of that record? Remember - cabs self insure and only for extremely low amounts, and the people who are supposed to be regulating them couldn't give two shits about anything the cabbies do.

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there are GPS records of taxi trips. And how do you "prove" which taxi you were in? If you thought to take a picture of his medallion numbers and license plates and e-mail it to yourself before he hauled you off to a murder dungeon?

Uber Passenger: My driver did something awful to me!
Uber: (has record that you were the passenger and which driver you were with)

Taxi passenger: My driver did something awful to me!
Taxi company: None of my drivers say they've ever seen you. There were 20 drivers in your neighborhood last night, I won't be able to help you sort this out, it's too much work.

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..because it assumes that the taxi company acknowledged the incident enough to even issue a response in the first place.

And, because the response doesn't contain any "F- you's" in it.

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This same sort of thing has been going on with taxis forever too. Only now there is a GPS record of the whole thing where before good luck reporting the driver to the crooked hackney division at your local PD.

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You are paid uber troll. Uber is an illegal entity. These harsh things happening all the time.

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Lest anyone was confused.

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it is probably just coincidence that this happened to a Boston.com reporter.

Boston.com who forever has been publishing anit-uber stories trying to bring uber down because they love hack, union, townie industries like the taxi industry.

it is purely coincidence.

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Boston.com has sucked much butt, it's true.

But if you're accusing a journalist of fabricating a story, especially with criminal allegations... that's a big deal, but unlikely. I don't think Boston.com staff are that stupid, not now.

They have to know that this story will be investigated by police, and that the alleged perpetrator is almost certainly easily identifiable. And if the story were found to be fabricated, that has happened before with other outlets, and the journalist and outlet in question gets ripped a new one by a whole lot of other outlets. Journalists know this.

There are so many more likely examples of corruption in Boston.

That said, if this story is shown to be fabricated, I'll eat my hat. As I watch the owner personally storm through the Boston.com newsroom, swinging a double-bladed axe.

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Public transportation must be regulated and overseen to avoid such problems. Stop getting into uber cars. It's totally unsafe.

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Would oversight eliminate these problems entirely? Would these background checks include reading the minds of future drivers and figuring out who might possibly commit a crime in the future?

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A man who has never been attacked by a cab driver, who could not be tracked after.

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See if you can go a month without this sort of crap happening to you.

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I have three daughters. One is 28 and carries a legal Glock 9mm, always. One is 25 and carries her legal Glock .45, always. Youngest is 20 and carries pepper spray, always, and will carry HER legal Glock the day she turns 21. And if, God forbid, some scumball tries to rape or assault them, they would BOTH use their firearm in self defense and my "little one" would spray the scumball.

Do you hear that, Hillary? Or would you prefer that they be raped, the way your despicable filthbag husband's victims were (that you helped and enabled him to do for so many years by keeping quiet about it, denying it)??
Indecent Assault. Sexual Assault. Rape.

"IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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That escalated quickly.

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So now, in addition to the risk of assault, your daughters provide weapons for the perps to grab and use against them.

If they don't just shoot themselves or their friends first when toppling off of high heels while drunk.

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Oh, so can women not be well trained like men to use a firearm??? Why are you assuming they will be in heels and drunk?! Have a little more faith in us.

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What a sexist response. So women are always drunk and in high heels? No woman has a job where she might have to get from one end of the city to the other and might take a taxi/Uber to do so?

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It's for the children? Lol. More people are shot by children in this country than terrorists.

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Perfect score.

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piece. We've become too comfortable with technology and ride share services. In response to this near tragedy the Uber's of the world owe their customers more than a human resource circle jerk.

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