Brooklyn, NY – U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s stepdaughter was briefly detained at a police station after an argument with an Uber taxi driver over an unpaid fare, police said Monday.
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Kia Absalom, 21, was riding in the car on Dec. 28. She believed her fare was automatically paid through the Uber ride-hailing app, as is the practice with most of the cars available on Uber, police said.
But the driver was signed up for the UberT service, through which riders can pay with cash or credit cards but not through the app.
“I asked her to pay me,” taxi driver Hassan Almaweri told the Daily News. “She said, ‘No, I paid by the app.'”
The two argued over the fare, and he drove her to a Brooklyn police station.
After it was determined she owed him about $20, she said she had no cash or credit cards on her, police said. She was detained for about a half-hour in a cell while her boyfriend came to pay the fare, they said. After she paid, she was released, and police said her arrest number was voided.
She was not fingerprinted or booked, police said.
Messages left with the attorney general’s office and Absalom weren’t immediately returned Monday. San Francisco-based Uber declined to comment.
Police said they were reviewing what happened.
I also understood that the driver gets paid automatically through the app. Hmmmm, better look into these things well before signing up.
Hopefully the AG now takes a closer look at NYPD practices. Does it really make sense to arrest someone over a $20 ‘dispute’?
Why didn’t they have to void the drivers arrest number too until the circumstances were verified?
If the AG complains about unfair treatment, she can arrest herself for anti-Muslim speech.
What a non-story. The step-daughter wasn’t arrested and the taxi driver got paid. Why is this news?
interesting, how the NYPD acted.
I’m a little bit of a NYC taxi driver here and there. In most instances, Uber typically measures the fare by GPS and charges the customer directly for it, through the app. Uber takes their cut, and delivers the rest to the driver’s account. Uber also has thousands of NYC taxi drivers signed up to the service through UberT. If you get a real “taxi” through Uber, Uber charges the customer $2 for the privilege of hailing a taxi through the app, and once the taxi picks you up, Uber is out of the equation (except for ratings). You’re on the meter and pay the taxi as normal. Maybe once I had a customer (drunk) who didn’t know this.