1. Human Trafficking

I picked up a ride that was listed as her name being “Claire”, but when I picked up the young woman, she didn’t look like a Claire. When I asked if she was Claire, she just nodded at me and smiled. She didn’t speak English. She looked to be an immigrant. She was wearing a hijab and was very quiet. She had a cell phone on her and so I thought maybe someone ordered the ride for her.

 

I took her to the address that was input into the app but when we got there, she indicated to me that it was the wrong address. She showed me the address it was supposed to be on her phone. It was an address 20 miles away from where we were. I couldn’t explain that to her, though.

 

I did not want to leave her at the strange address and since I figured it wasn’t her account, I drove her to the other address with no charge.

 

When I got to the address, it was an apartment complex and there was a dark SUV parked in the parking lot in the shadows. There were a couple of large men standing next to it. They were waiting for her and she went over to them and one of them opened the back door and motioned her to get in. There seemed to be a few other people in the vehicle as well.

 

On the drive to the first location, I heard someone talking on the phone she had. I guess they called her wondering where she was and and angry voice barked at her “halfway around the world, and you don’t speak a word of fucking English!” That alone had made me suspicious, and when I saw the SUV, my suspicions grew.

 

I tried to talk to the gentleman to explain what had happened. I got out of my car and they got nervous and I shined my flashlight at them and they told me to “get the fuck out”. They came towards me and I got back in my car.

 

I pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the block and called 911. The SUV drove past me, and I decided to follow. I wrote down the license plate as I waited on hold. When I got someone to talk to on the phone, I tried to explain what was going on. I’m guessing the SUV realized I was following them because they started to speed up. They lost me on a side street while I was still on the phone with the police. The police said I should just leave it alone. The license plate would give them a lead. But they asked if I could meet with an officer to talk about what had happened and so I went to the police station they asked me to meet them at and I gave them my story. They also got the information from my app on who called the ride. They said there was an issue with East African refugees in the state, especially from places like Somalia and the Congo being used as slave labor. After they were finished talking to me, they asked me for my info and I told them to call me if I could help.

 

I feel like I didn’t do enough. I should have been more proactive. They got away from me and now I’m thinking of that young girl and whoever else was in that suburban. And every other victim of human trafficking. And how I was pretty fucking useless tonight.

I informed the ride share company of the incident and gave them the police report and told them who I talked to. They told me I acted accordingly, except for the part of getting out of my car. They said I should just call the police if I see any suspicious activity and let them handle it.

 

It made me think that I should share these rides with people. Maybe they could be informative about the ride sharing experience. Let people know how to act when they are getting rides. 

Or maybe they can simply entertain.

Note: a few days later an item appeared on my app instructing drivers how to deal with instances of suspected human trafficking. Must have been a coincidence.