Crime Alert: A Houston rideshare driver was shot in the arm Monday evening
The driver, who was driving a red Toyota SUV was shot in the arm during what appeared to be another armed robbery, but details are still emerging.
A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a driver who was carjacked at gunpoint by underage riders he picked up off Bellaire Blvd.
This time, the driver (who is in stable condition) was shot in the arm by a Lyft rider he picked up in the 400 block of W. FM 1960 near I-45 in North Harris county. This driver is also a Uber driver.
As soon as we have a rider description, we will update this page. Until they are caught, there is a strong chance they still have access to Uber, if not Lyft.
This was not a one-off type of thing either. Fortunately, our Sheriff, Ed Gonzalez recognizes that this is becoming a problem. You can’t fix something that you do not realize is broken right?
In closing:
The only way we can truly stop our own riders from robbing us is to have Uber and Lyft force riders to upload IDs so that the officers may find them easily. This, in my opinion, will have a lot of people thinking twice. We do have to remember though that driving a taxi is one of the world’s most dangerous professions and we rideshare drivers are just glorified, taxi drivers. Things like this are bound to happen.
Yes, we do not carry cash, but if the rider has our $1,000+ phone, and you left that phone unlocked (aka you don’t have even a simple passcode), they can now go into your Uber and Lyft account and change your payment method. Have 2FA enabled? Is the 2nd Factor your phone number or email that is already on your phone? Hopefully, your bank app is locked as well. Taxi drivers carry less than $20 in change and get robbed all the time. Just some things to think about.
On a side note, there are reports that the driver had a camera inside the vehicle. I highly recommend Nexar or any other camera that can not only record the inside but upload it to the cloud automatically. It does not matter if the criminal grabs the camera, or if it takes the police a few hours to find you, and your dashcam rewrites over your memory card. That video will be in the cloud. Every Nexar Camera comes with UNLIMITED FREE STORAGE.