1
00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:07,839
Speaker 1: I was driving for DoorDash on the weekend to make

2
00:00:07,879 --> 00:00:11,279
some extra money. I worked a day job, so I

3
00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:15,320
could only start driving later in the night. When I started,

4
00:00:15,519 --> 00:00:18,559
it was a little past nine. I got my first

5
00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,000
order and dropped it off, then drove back to where

6
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,480
the restaurants were. I drove in circles for a while,

7
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:28,920
maybe ten minutes, without getting a single order. It was late,

8
00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:31,440
but on the weekends there would usually still be a

9
00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:35,560
decent amount of orders. Finally one popped up and I

10
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:38,479
accepted it, though it was a small order with a

11
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,640
small tip. After that one, I waited in a parking

12
00:00:42,679 --> 00:00:46,079
lot for almost twenty minutes before the next order came through.

13
00:00:47,399 --> 00:00:51,079
Obviously this wasn't ideal, having to wait so long between

14
00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:53,960
orders and not even getting to choose which orders to

15
00:00:54,039 --> 00:00:58,719
accept unless I wanted to wait even longer. This order

16
00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,439
was another small one, but some money was better than none,

17
00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,879
so I accepted it. I picked up their bag from

18
00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,439
Taco Bell and counted the items to make sure it

19
00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:12,560
was right. Two tacos and some packets of hot sauce.

20
00:01:13,159 --> 00:01:17,120
That was it. The delivery fee was probably more expensive

21
00:01:17,159 --> 00:01:21,040
than the food. I confirmed that. I picked up the order,

22
00:01:21,239 --> 00:01:24,599
then got the directions to the house. It was ten

23
00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:29,079
minutes away in some regular neighborhood. A few minutes into

24
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,359
the drive, I pulled up to a red light. There

25
00:01:32,439 --> 00:01:34,799
was almost nobody on the road at this time of night,

26
00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:37,920
so I was just sitting at this empty intersection waiting

27
00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:40,599
for it to turn green when a truck pulled up

28
00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:45,159
next to me. I unconsciously looked over slightly, but the

29
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:47,920
man in the truck caught my attention enough to make

30
00:01:47,959 --> 00:01:51,640
me turn my head fully. He was sticking his head

31
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,879
out of the window and looking down into my car,

32
00:01:55,719 --> 00:01:58,680
not at me, but at my passenger seat, which had

33
00:01:58,719 --> 00:02:02,040
the door dash bag in it. I looked back and

34
00:02:02,159 --> 00:02:05,480
saw the light was green, so I pressed on the gas.

35
00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:08,639
I had no idea why he was looking in my car,

36
00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,759
but he made it very obvious and didn't even try

37
00:02:11,759 --> 00:02:15,560
to hide it. I checked my mirrors and the truck

38
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:19,000
was now in my lane, cruising a good distance behind me.

39
00:02:20,719 --> 00:02:24,199
As I continued driving along my route, the truck stayed

40
00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,680
behind me, but I couldn't say for sure if he

41
00:02:26,759 --> 00:02:29,439
was following me or not because the route was straight

42
00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,280
all the way until the neighborhood. When I turned in,

43
00:02:33,719 --> 00:02:36,840
I stared at my mirrors, waiting anxiously for the truck

44
00:02:36,879 --> 00:02:40,840
to pass the entrance, but after ten seconds he turned

45
00:02:40,879 --> 00:02:44,960
in behind me. There was a chance he just lived here,

46
00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:47,919
and I knew that, but after seeing him looking in

47
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,039
my car, I felt like I was justified in my suspicions.

48
00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:54,680
The route had me go down a few turns in

49
00:02:54,719 --> 00:02:57,599
the neighborhood before taking me down to the last road

50
00:02:57,719 --> 00:03:02,120
with the address on it. I turned, and right away

51
00:03:02,319 --> 00:03:05,319
I saw the dead end sign a few houses down.

52
00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:10,439
I braked and pulled over, staring at my rear view mirror.

53
00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:16,680
The truck pulled him behind me and parked. As I

54
00:03:16,719 --> 00:03:19,319
waited in my car trying to come up with a plan,

55
00:03:19,759 --> 00:03:22,319
the truck behind me was just sitting there with its

56
00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:27,080
headlights on. Then I got a text. It was from

57
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,840
the door dash customer, asking when the delivery would be arriving.

58
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,199
This was all coming together and I realized that the

59
00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,800
man in the truck, likely my customer, was waiting for

60
00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,240
me to get out of my car. Even though I

61
00:03:42,319 --> 00:03:45,039
knew what was going on, I still had no way

62
00:03:45,039 --> 00:03:48,400
of getting out of it. After a minute of me

63
00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:51,840
panicking to figure an escape, the man got out of

64
00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:58,639
his truck. He walked down to my car, but stopped

65
00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,159
right by the trunk. I watched in my mirror as

66
00:04:02,159 --> 00:04:05,120
he stood there looking at me through the back windshield.

67
00:04:06,319 --> 00:04:10,719
It was a tense moment, making my head panic with thoughts.

68
00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:15,199
Then all of a sudden, he slammed something into the windshield,

69
00:04:15,599 --> 00:04:20,240
shattering it. I put the car in drive and floored

70
00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,040
it just as the man jumped onto the back and

71
00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:28,160
tried to crawl in through the broken glass. He fell

72
00:04:28,199 --> 00:04:30,720
off as I made a tight U turn, and with

73
00:04:30,879 --> 00:04:32,879
the time it took for him to get up, I

74
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000
was able to carefully maneuver between his truck without any

75
00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,120
more damage. I saw him wobble across the street as

76
00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:45,160
I left and called nine one one. When police got there,

77
00:04:45,639 --> 00:04:49,079
all they found were the broken shards of glass laying

78
00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:53,240
in the road. I'm very thankful to have made it

79
00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,639
out with nothing but a broken windshield, but that night

80
00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:00,040
had me shaken up for months. I just hope he

81
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,480
not out there trying to trap more people and do

82
00:05:03,879 --> 00:05:20,000
who knows what to them. I'm an uber driver mainly

83
00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:24,120
working in a large suburb outside Las Vegas. The city

84
00:05:24,199 --> 00:05:27,120
is a bit sketchy sometimes, but this suburb is known

85
00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:29,920
for being a nicer area, so I never found myself

86
00:05:29,959 --> 00:05:34,000
worrying too much. Sure i'd get some weird people sometimes,

87
00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:38,720
but they were usually just drunk, high, or otherwise intoxicated

88
00:05:38,759 --> 00:05:42,879
in some way. I'd worked for a few months with

89
00:05:42,959 --> 00:05:47,279
no issues and found myself actually enjoying the job. On

90
00:05:47,439 --> 00:05:50,759
this night, I was working around my usual time, between

91
00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:54,160
six and ten PM. It was one of those nights

92
00:05:54,199 --> 00:05:56,360
where I was getting a lot of people and making

93
00:05:56,399 --> 00:06:00,600
a lot of money. When ten o'clock came around, I

94
00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,360
chose to keep grinding out these pickups and make as

95
00:06:03,439 --> 00:06:07,680
much as I could. The very next order after ten

96
00:06:08,079 --> 00:06:11,839
was from someone eighteen minutes away at an undefined location.

97
00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,120
This wasn't out of the ordinary. It usually just meant

98
00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:18,279
they were on the side of a road somewhere, or

99
00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:22,120
outside of some place that wasn't on the map. I

100
00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:24,439
zoomed in and saw it was right next to a

101
00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,439
storage garage. I began the drive, and when I was

102
00:06:28,519 --> 00:06:31,199
five minutes away, I got a call from the customer.

103
00:06:33,399 --> 00:06:35,360
I'm gonna be late. I need you to wait a

104
00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:39,879
few minutes for me. Thanks, he said quickly, while breathing heavily,

105
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,399
like he just ran a mile. The man hung up

106
00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:47,279
right after. I can't say I'd ever had someone tell

107
00:06:47,319 --> 00:06:49,720
me that they were gonna be late, but I didn't

108
00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,439
mind waiting a few minutes. I knew if I canceled it,

109
00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:55,800
then he'd have to wait another ten to twenty minutes

110
00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:58,199
for a new driver to get there, and I was

111
00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:00,920
hoping that by waiting he'd give me a little extra

112
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:06,759
tip money. When I arrived, I didn't see anyone outside,

113
00:07:07,079 --> 00:07:09,399
so I pulled in and parked in the storage garage

114
00:07:09,439 --> 00:07:13,079
parking lot. I waited for five minutes. Then I saw

115
00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:16,360
a man in my mirror. He was walking quickly out

116
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:20,800
of the storage building holding a large Duffel bag. When

117
00:07:20,839 --> 00:07:24,439
he got my car, a nasty odor came from him.

118
00:07:24,839 --> 00:07:27,800
I also saw that he was dripping in sweat, and

119
00:07:27,839 --> 00:07:31,600
it was really gross. I'd picked up people from the

120
00:07:31,639 --> 00:07:34,959
gym before, so this wasn't too terrible, but it never

121
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,639
made for a good experience. I tried to not make

122
00:07:38,639 --> 00:07:42,920
a face and greeted him. The man said nothing, so

123
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,160
I got back on the road. During the ride, the

124
00:07:47,199 --> 00:07:50,000
man held the Duffel bag on his lap and stared

125
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:54,639
forward without speaking a word. It made me feel uncomfortable,

126
00:07:54,879 --> 00:07:59,360
so I didn't speak either. After a twenty minute drive

127
00:07:59,399 --> 00:08:03,240
of awkwardness, I finally got to the destination. It was

128
00:08:03,319 --> 00:08:07,439
a corner of a street, non an address. Before I

129
00:08:07,439 --> 00:08:10,519
could even shift into park, the man hurried out and

130
00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:15,439
started walking away. After all that, I wasn't expecting any

131
00:08:15,439 --> 00:08:18,759
sort of tip, which was a disappointment and enough so

132
00:08:18,959 --> 00:08:20,639
to get me to call it quits for the night.

133
00:08:22,079 --> 00:08:25,800
During my drive home, I noticed that smell never left

134
00:08:25,879 --> 00:08:29,160
my car, even when I tried rolling the windows down.

135
00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:32,559
It was so bad that I had to pull over

136
00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:34,679
and check to see if he had left something in

137
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:39,000
the back seat. I opened the door and immediately saw

138
00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:42,759
some red spots on the seat. I'm no expert, but

139
00:08:42,879 --> 00:08:46,879
it looked like blood. I called the police, and after

140
00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:50,799
some looking, they confirmed that it was and there was

141
00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:55,399
a lot of it. We tried to track the Uber account,

142
00:08:55,759 --> 00:08:59,000
and the next day they even contacted the storage unit,

143
00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:03,559
but had no luck with identifying the man. After thinking

144
00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:06,440
back on all of it, though, I'm sure that guy

145
00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:09,720
did something terrible just minutes before I picked him up.

146
00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:13,559
I mean, he was sweating and carrying a duffel bag

147
00:09:13,639 --> 00:09:17,000
with blood soaked into it, and on top of all that,

148
00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:21,440
he used fake accounts with both Uber and the storage unit.

149
00:09:22,639 --> 00:09:25,080
It really showed me that even in a place that's

150
00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,679
considered to be nice and safe, there's still terrible people

151
00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:33,279
doing terrible things. I took a week off from Uber,

152
00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:36,840
then got back to it, but I'm way more cautious

153
00:09:36,919 --> 00:09:48,000
about who I'm picking up. I'm a truck driver for

154
00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:51,759
a moving company on the East Coast. We specialize in

155
00:09:51,799 --> 00:09:55,720
cross country moving, typically moving people to the far West Coast,

156
00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:58,759
which can take anywhere from twenty to forty hours depending

157
00:09:58,799 --> 00:10:02,639
on the locations. I only did the driving for the company,

158
00:10:02,919 --> 00:10:05,720
not any of the boxing or loading, so the actual

159
00:10:05,799 --> 00:10:08,639
job was one hundred percent just driving and picking up

160
00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:12,600
or dropping off the trailer at the houses. I'd been

161
00:10:12,639 --> 00:10:15,440
working with this company for almost four years at the time.

162
00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,440
This job was like every other. I got to the

163
00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:23,159
pickup address and loaded up the trailer full of the

164
00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:27,600
customer's belongings. This was a thirty hour drive in total,

165
00:10:27,799 --> 00:10:30,600
which I would do with two to three short rest stops.

166
00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,720
The hardest states to drive through are in the Midwest,

167
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:41,159
specifically Iowa and Nebraska. There's absolutely nothing there. It's just

168
00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:45,320
dead roads with endless fields of grass beside them. It

169
00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:50,639
makes for a very boring and therefore tiring drive. As

170
00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:54,200
I passed through the Iowa border into Nebraska, the sun

171
00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:56,399
had just set and I'd been on the road for

172
00:10:56,440 --> 00:11:00,039
about twenty hours. I took a short break, already a

173
00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:02,919
couple states back, but was just about ready for another.

174
00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:06,559
My eyes were heavy and I could feel the drowsiness

175
00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,960
coming in. But a few more miles down I saw

176
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:13,200
something on the side of the road. A car was

177
00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:15,600
stopped off to the side of my lane with its

178
00:11:15,639 --> 00:11:19,840
headlights on. It was a narrow road, so I slowed

179
00:11:19,879 --> 00:11:23,519
down to carefully pass. As I did, I noticed the

180
00:11:23,559 --> 00:11:27,519
exhaust was steaming, so the car was still running. There

181
00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:30,639
was also a man leaning against the driver door and

182
00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:34,679
looking right at me. I passed by and gave him

183
00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:37,120
a nod, but as I got further down the road,

184
00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,480
I saw him get back into the car. It was

185
00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:43,000
very strange for someone to be sitting on the side

186
00:11:43,039 --> 00:11:46,600
of an empty road with a car that still runs.

187
00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:49,960
He didn't look like he was in any sort of trouble.

188
00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:56,279
He looked like he was waiting. I checked my mirrors often,

189
00:11:56,519 --> 00:12:00,279
but the car's headlights disappeared behind me. After a few minutes.

190
00:12:01,639 --> 00:12:03,799
I was a bit more awake now, but my eyes

191
00:12:03,879 --> 00:12:08,480
still felt heavy. Only a mile or so more down

192
00:12:08,519 --> 00:12:12,519
the road, I saw another car. This one was sideways

193
00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:15,120
in the middle of the road, and as I got closer,

194
00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,399
I saw another vehicle on the side. It was a

195
00:12:18,519 --> 00:12:23,159
large box van. I wasn't sure exactly of the situation,

196
00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,600
but seeing that gave me a bad feeling. I eased

197
00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:30,080
into my brakes, but the car stayed in the middle

198
00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:32,279
of the road, so I was forced to come to

199
00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,759
a full stop. I was maybe twenty yards away and

200
00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,600
could see multiple men standing along the road and one

201
00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:44,320
man in front of the car. I'd have to be

202
00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,440
the dumbest person in the world to not understand what

203
00:12:47,519 --> 00:12:52,000
this was. At this point, with no better options, I

204
00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:56,480
started moving the truck backward. The men stayed where they were.

205
00:12:56,679 --> 00:13:02,120
With this horrifying confidence, the light shined behind me and

206
00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:07,159
a car approached, blocking the way back. A man got

207
00:13:07,159 --> 00:13:10,039
out of the car, sprinting at the back of my trailer,

208
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:12,759
and at the same time, all of the men in

209
00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:17,840
the front started sprinting at me too. In that instant,

210
00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:21,440
my mind went blank and all of my adrenaline took over.

211
00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:24,799
I slammed on the gas as I heard a pop

212
00:13:24,879 --> 00:13:28,159
on the back of the trailer and the doors swung open.

213
00:13:29,039 --> 00:13:31,519
The men in front yelled and tried to stand in

214
00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,600
my way, but once they saw I wasn't stopping, they

215
00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:41,600
jumped on the side of the road. I rammed right

216
00:13:41,639 --> 00:13:44,919
into the car, knocking it off the road and completely

217
00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:49,759
destroying it. A few gunshots sounded in the distance, but

218
00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:53,919
none hit. I could hear cargo falling out of the

219
00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:56,879
trailer for the next five miles before I was able

220
00:13:56,919 --> 00:14:00,639
to call the police and meet an officer on the road.

221
00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:03,799
Of course, this was a total mess, but as it

222
00:14:03,879 --> 00:14:07,039
all unfolded, it turned out to be much more than

223
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,720
just a random attack and robbery. When police arrived at

224
00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:15,440
the scene, the car had slammed into was left behind,

225
00:14:15,799 --> 00:14:20,879
being damaged beyond drivable with it. They tracked down one

226
00:14:20,879 --> 00:14:23,759
of the members of the attackers, who gave up information

227
00:14:23,879 --> 00:14:28,320
on the others. They had information on the rich homeowners

228
00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:31,200
that were moving and planned to stop me and steal

229
00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:34,919
all of the belongings with their box van. They never

230
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,519
said what exactly they would have done to me after

231
00:14:37,559 --> 00:14:39,879
they robbed the truck, but I don't think it's a

232
00:14:39,919 --> 00:14:42,159
stretch to assume that it would have been a lot

233
00:14:42,240 --> 00:15:02,559
easier for them to not leave any loose ends.