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UberX Driver Arrested for Trying to Burglarize Passenger's House

posted by takyon on Sunday April 05 2015, @01:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the proactive-sharing-economy dept.

darkfeline writes in with yet another incident that the $41-billion-valued Uber would like to forget.

Gerald Montgomery, a 51-year-old UberX driver, has been arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary. He was reportedly trying to break into the Denver home of a woman he had just driven to Denver International Airport, and was found carrying "burglar tools". Uber says that Montgomery had passed all background checks, and the man had no criminal history in Colorado according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. Montgomery has been "deactivated" from the UberX platform and the Denver victim's fare was refunded.

The UberX platform requires drivers to operate their own vehicles and is less regulated than taxi services. Rides are covered by commercial insurance. An investigation [autoplay video] by NBC Los Angeles last year found that Uber has employed "screened" drivers with long-term felony records.

The company continues to attract unwanted attention around the globe; Uber's headquarters in Amsterdam has been raided twice this week, and an Uber employee has been arrested for obstructing the investigation. The investigators were looking for evidence that the company is continuing to operate UberPop, an urban ridesharing service deemed illegal by a Dutch court.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 05 2015, @07:32PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday April 05 2015, @07:32PM (#166756) Journal

    How many crooks don't get caught?

    How the hell would anyone know that?

    Yes, I understand that the question was rhetorical, but when you only sample one segment of the population, (those caught) you have no clue about the population as a whole.

    Burglaries in general have one of the lowest clearance rate of any crimes according to the FBI. [fbi.gov] About 12.7 percent. Car theft is even less likely to be solved.

    We have no clue who makes up that other 88%.

    The FBI definition of "Clearance" of a crime takes into account making one arrest and thereby clearing 25 crimes. Yet 88% go un-cleared. So I would say there is a good chance that there are a significant percentage of crooks out there among that 88% that never get arrested.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2015, @10:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2015, @10:03PM (#166788)

    How many crooks don't get caught?

    How the hell would anyone know that?

    Same way they 'know' how many unreported rapes happen—buttmagic.