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Eavesdropping Uber Driver Helps Rescue 16-Year-Old From Her Pimps (washingtonpost.com)
Slashdot reader sabri writes "In California, an Uber driver saved a 16 year old girl from human traffickers after he overheard them talk about delivering the girl to a customer." The Washington Post reports:
Uber driver Keith Avila picked up a passenger who looked like a 12-year-old girl in a short skirt Monday night. That was the first sign that something was off, he would say later. Two women got into his car with the girl outside a house in Sacramento. Halfway to their destination -- a Holiday Inn in Elk Grove, California -- they asked Avila to turn up the music, he said. Then the women turned to the girl. Avila listened in.
"They were describing what they were going to do when they get there: 'Check for guns. Get the money before you start touching up on the guy,'" Avila said on Facebook Live minutes after he dropped off the passengers, then called police to report the women whom he suspected of prostituting the child. The girl was 16, not 12, Elk Grove police told local news outlets. But Avila's suspicions were right, they said. The teen was being sold for sex at the Holiday Inn, and her eavesdropping Uber driver had saved her.
The teen girl was returned to her family, while the two women with her were charged with multiple felonies. The driver had only joined Uber a few weeks earlier, but his Facebook Live video from outside his fare's house has now been viewed more than 240,000 times.
"They were describing what they were going to do when they get there: 'Check for guns. Get the money before you start touching up on the guy,'" Avila said on Facebook Live minutes after he dropped off the passengers, then called police to report the women whom he suspected of prostituting the child. The girl was 16, not 12, Elk Grove police told local news outlets. But Avila's suspicions were right, they said. The teen was being sold for sex at the Holiday Inn, and her eavesdropping Uber driver had saved her.
The teen girl was returned to her family, while the two women with her were charged with multiple felonies. The driver had only joined Uber a few weeks earlier, but his Facebook Live video from outside his fare's house has now been viewed more than 240,000 times.
"Careless idiots overheard planning a criminal act. Person overhearing them called the police!"
If this is what counts as news today I guess we've got everything under control.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Just because Uber is involved this is "news"? And almost a week late at that? This is not "news for nerds", sorry.
You are assuming that she is indeed "prostituting herself" rather than being sold . The story and outcome makes it sound like the second possibility is the reality here...
I'm astounded that you'd blame the victim here ("turn around and do the same thing next week.") She was apparently a vulnerable person who was actively exploited by these two women. She had been reported missing by her family. Whether she ran away or was kidnapped doesn't really change the fact she was exploited, which is wrong and illegal.
Posting to facebook live astounds me, but come on, the guy did the right thing. Most people would just walk away. Kudos to him for acting, regardless of which taxi company he was working for. Sure if it wasn't uber or didn't involve facebook life, it wouldn't be on slashdot. I agree with you that this story doesn't really belong on Slashdot.
Go and see the Facebook live video. The cops were already there on the video and he only made the video because the cops told him to stay because they would like a second statement from him
If you are seriously trying to justify the motives and actions of people who engage in human trafficking, there is clearly not enough of a common denominator between us in our values and standards to engage in any kind of useful discussion
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Seriously?
Turning a 16 year old into a slave is all about control. You teach her that the cops wont help, you get her hooked on some kind of drug, you create a prison without bars by telling her shes done horrific things that the cops will send her to jail for years over.
In a physical sense your correct, she was free, but in a mental and emotional sense she was in just as much of a jail as someone behind bars.