A warning to people who use ride sharing services to always know whose car you're getting into after two women were allegedly sexually assaulted in separate, likely unrelated incidents, when they thought they were using ride share services in Boston this weekend.
"Everybody should just be more cautious and aware of the fact that it's been happening," said Uli Akbarova, a Suffolk University student.
Boston police say the first alleged sexual assault was just before 3am Sunday, where a woman arranged a pick up on Landsdowne Street and got into a car where the driver admitted he wasn't her driver, but offered to take her anywhere as long as she sat in the front seat.
Erin Muschette who works in Boston said, "If someone says I'm not who you called I can give you a ride, I personally wouldn't get in the car."
Lyft released a statement saying in part, "A Lyft driver was dispatched to pick up a passenger in the South End. When the driver arrived at the designated spot he called the passenger, however the passenger never got into his car and wound up canceling the ride."
The second incident was a woman picked up at 2 Center Plaza just after 3am and told to sit in the front seat -- who was allegedly sexually assaulted as she was driven home to Mission Hill.
John Walsh from Boston said, "Look at the picture and you get in the back seat not the front seat."
Uber released a statement saying in part, "We are working with Boston Police to aid in their investigation of these incidents."
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said, "This is still under investigation and this is one of the concerns I have with the bill in the legislature that one of the components of the bill that's not in there allows the city of Boston to put some of our own restrictions on there."
Both Uber and Lyft urge their users to always check their driver's photo ID and match up the make, model and license plate number of the car that was scheduled to pick them up.
Anyone with information about either of these alleged sexual assaults is urged to call Boston police.
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}