A Utah mother is urging parents to rethink how they use ride-hailing apps after she says a Lyft driver tried to abduct her 15-year-old daughter. The incident happened last Saturday in West Jordan—just days before the company rolled out a new teen-focused service, Lyft Teen.
“She’s like, ‘Mom, did you just cancel the Lyft?’ And I was like, ‘No, I didn’t,’” Ramirez told GMA. Ramirez said her daughter told her the driver claimed the ride had been canceled and blamed it on an issue with the app. Ramirez said in her view, “he just canceled the ride.”
Ramirez said she began tracking her daughter’s phone on a separate location-sharing app and saw the car moving away from the intended route, which left her “shaking” and wondering, “Where’s my baby?”
On the phone, Ramirez said she could hear her daughter’s tone shift. “I can hear it in her voice that it changed … she went, ‘Mommy, he’s not listening to me. Mommy, he’s not stopping the car,’” Ramirez told GMA.
Ramirez said she told her daughter to get out of the vehicle and run, promising to order another ride. Home security footage near Tara Lynda Elementary School shows the teen unlocking the door, jumping out, and sprinting away. Ramirez described it as a “close call” and said, “He kidnapped my child, she tried to get out, and he didn’t stop the car.”
Ramirez said she is “happy she took control of the situation,” calling her “just a brave teenager.”
In a statement to NTD News, Lyft called the “horrifying incident” “reprehensible” and said it “has no place in the Lyft community or society.” The company said it has removed the driver from its platform and is prepared to help law enforcement with any investigation.
The West Jordan Police Department told ABC 4 that cases like this are rare and that it is still investigating. Police said they are not identifying the driver at this time, and that removal from the Lyft platform does not by itself determine guilt.
West Jordan Police did not respond to a request for comment from NTD News prior to publication.
Ramirez, however, told ABC4 she believes the current safeguards are “not enough” and that she would not trust the company again.