Woman Is Shocked That Her Lyft Driver From 3 Weeks Ago Came To Her Workplace, Warns Others
It’s vital that you always consider your safety, Pandas. Whether walking down the street or using transport, it should be your priority. However, it can come as a shock when someone that you assume is a professional acts anything but.
Twitter user @sighjunwa had a stark warning for all women that they might become the victims of a stalker even when using well-known transport service providers like Lyft or Uber. She shared how shocked she was when her driver from a few weeks back showed up at her workplace, came up to meet her, and asked for her number.
It’s creepy. It’s scary. And it shouldn’t be happening. It’s no surprise that the woman was left incredibly frightened. Scroll down to read what happened in @sighjunwa’s own words, how people reacted, and their own stories about getting stalked. Has anything similar happened to you, Pandas? Share what happened in the comments to warn and help protect others in the future.
A Twitter user had a frightening experience with her driver, and she felt she needed to warn others
Image credits: sighjunwa
The Twitter user started up an important discussion, as her posts reached a massive number of people. Her thread got over a quarter of a million likes, and got women to open up about their own horrible experiences. It just goes to show that these situations aren’t as rare as some might think.
Starting from the basics, begin by checking if the car is the same make and model as the one on your app. Then, have a glance at the license plate and your driver: are they the same ones as the info listed on your phone? If not, something might be wrong and it’s best to not get in. Trust your gut. Request your ride from indoors where it’s safer and always try to sit in the back seat when you get in the car.
‘A Girl’s Guide To Cars’ suggests that women ask the driver to confirm your name. For instance, you can ask, “Who are you here to pick up?” After you do that, ask for their name.
Another layer of security can be added by telling your friends and family about your trip. Get in touch with them before you get in the car and after you get out. You can also share your trip’s progress with them so they can keep an eye on you as you travel, if you or they are particularly worried. Riding together with a friend might be one way to help reclaim your sense of safety if you’ve had bad experiences before.
Meanwhile, if you want to protect your privacy, only message or call the driver via the app you’re using. This way, your info will be anonymous and you reduce the likelihood of being harassed afterward.
Above everything, if you feel that your life is in danger or you feel threatened, call the police, possibly through the ridesharing app you’re using. Some apps also have emergency features. Again, trust your gut.
Here’s how people reacted to what happened to the woman
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Previously Emily May, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of ‘Right To Be’ explained to Bored Panda how common harassment is and how to respond to it. The nonprofit aims to end harassment in all of its forms. According to a 2021 study that they did, 80% of women have experienced street harassment. Meanwhile, they’re working together with L’Oreal Paris to train a million people in bystander intervention, in order to address street harassment.
“Our Stand Up Against Street Harassment Training offers three strategies to use in response to harassment: assess your safety, reclaim your space (optional), and practice resilience. Proven ways to reclaim your space include setting a boundary, asking someone for help, or documenting your harassment,” Emily told Bored Panda during an interview.
“There is no such thing as a perfect response to harassment, it’s their responsibility not to harass you. Taking time to find a sense of safety inside yourself, educate yourself about the issue, share your story, and learn how to intervene on behalf of others are all key parts of the healing journey,” she said.
Some folks gave advice on how to stay safe and avoid dangerous situations
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Others were inspired to open up about their own creepy and scary experiences
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Men reading - I hope you're internalizing these stories and that it's very clear what sort of behavior is creepy and scary. No woman you've just met owes you ANYTHING. They don't owe you their number, their time, an explanation, a smile. Be courteous, respect boundaries, respect women BECAUSE THEY ARE HUMAN AND YOU ARE HOPEFULLY NOT A COMPLETE AS*HOLE SCUMBAG.
I also hope that there are men who don't brush this of as an "incident" or "not all men" thing. This happens way too often
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I was fortunate that one of the retail jobs I worked had a woman manager for a while, and she knew and took seriously the problem of creepy men stalking women working at the store. We had policies that no one was to ever, EVER give out someone's last name, phone number, any info re: work schedule, no personal info at all, and it helped. She knew that when some doof came in and announced that he was "here to see Jan!" that the appropriate response is "This is a place of business, so we don't do social visits, can I take your name and number, and I'll pass it on to her," not even confirming if I was there at the moment or not. Guy employees walked us to our cars if we felt unsafe. We were about to switch to a new practice of fake names/nicknames on our nametags when she moved out of state. Guys, no woman who is engaging with you in any professional capacity wants to be harrassed by you. I don't care if you saw skyrockets and heard bells ringing. LEAVE US ALONE.
I am a Lyft driver and have been for over 4 years and almost 8,000 rides. I absolutely hate when I see these stories. I personally have driven women home when she was obviously intoxicated and the guy they were with was adamant they were staying with him, even though she wanted to go home. I've put guys out of my car when I hear a woman say that he's not going home with her, but he's dead set that he's going home with her. This behavior begins with a lack of honest parenting. I have made mistakes in my past, but even being in my 40's, if my dad were to see me or hear that I was disrespectful towards a woman he would still hit me and ask me what I was thinking. Buying a woman a drink or dinner means the only thing that you are entitled to is THANK YOU!!!! I would love for this OP to report the driver to Lyft so that's he is deactivated and banned from Lyft. We have had to all watch videos and agree to not do this. Yes even having people come onto me as they driver I still refuse.
I completely agree with you!!!! Just because you get her a drink or a meal, does not me "other activities" are required! - But ladies, trust me when I say this, us men would LOVE for you to buy us a drink once in a while if you are interested in us.
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When I was in HS, long ago before smartphones & apps, I lived in a small rural town & worked at a store in the local (tiny) mall. I helped this guy who was with his wife, shopping for curtains, towels & sheets, because they had just gotten married & bought their first house. I wasn't doing anything more than exactly what I was trained to do (ya know, being friendly, helpful, & knowledgeable about the products we carried & what we could order from the catalog). I think I gave them a discount, bc that's the kind of thing I did when newlyweds came in. It was something nice I could do, as sort of a congrats. I was 16, this guy was in his late 20s-early 30s. He came back every day for a month, asking for me. The girls in the catalog dept created a code to warn me over the intercom so I could go hide. He sat out in the parking lot as we left one night, so he knew my truck. I was terrified he'd follow me home. My (big, mean-looking) dad had to start picking me up from work bc I was so scared.
Reading so many stories like this you'd start to believe humanity is absolutely doomed. Really what kind of brain eating fungi did these ppl dip their covid selftests in to become that frigging creepy..?
Load More Replies... To the one commenter up there who thinks it's a good idea to be able to request a driver of a specified gender: how many creeps using Uber or Lyft do you think would abuse that feature to harass women drivers?
Only allowing it on female accounts could help, but there's no perfect system. A-holes will be a-holes, us normal guys just gotta get better at calling them out when we can
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I know this isn't the point of the article, but it bothered me how she said "black women get stalked and murdered frequently because of rejection", as if this doesn't happen to women of any ethnicity/race.
Look up "missing white woman syndrome". In Canada, indigenous women are targets and the police take the assault, murder or disappearance of an indigenous woman less seriously than that of a white woman. You might interpret the statement to mean that your issues are denied and ignored. I interpreted it to mean that, as a white woman, I've had to be careful, but I don't have the added layer of racism on top of that.
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My wife's car had a dead battery one morning before work. No problem just uber and I'll take care of it so it doesn't happen tomorrow morning. First thing he jokes about is how women are all afraid they'll get r8ped or k1lled. Red flag number 1. Then he tells her about how he moved back 5 years ago to find his high-school sweetheart. She has my wife's first name so he picks up every passenger with that name hoping to find her one day. Red flag number 2. Then when it's time to be dropped off the child safety lock is turned on and he complains that its stuck like that and has been meaning to get it fixed. Red flag 3. She complained about him to Uber but I doubt they did anything because nothing actually happened.... But this guy is a serial killer in the making...
driver appropriately.They claimed to not know where he was and offered me 5 bucks off my next ride. I contacted the police and different agencies.No one cared. I now use Uber and alert drivers I am with service dog.Lots cancel ride after.Which works because I don't want the ignorant hassle.Both companies have the exact same jargon about driver education. It's a joke.Same email service and mail is never answered by same person.All designed to never be held accountable for anything except the bill.Defensive riding only. I am charged forever.
Horrible,this the norm.A few yrs ago a class action lawsuit was started against Uber so many women had been raped.Uber and Lyft both primary concern is not being held liable. I had Lyft driver wig out when he saw my service dog.His harness.collar and leach identify he is a professional working dog. I was half way in the vehicle when he began screaming NO DOG and he floored the car. I dropped the leach,purse was scattered all over the parking lot with a takeout container of food.The car door was banging on my lower torso and somehow I landed on pavement.The driver never slowed down and as far as I know never looked back. I was all scraped up and a wreck.When I got home I contacted Lyft assuming aaassdtguthewouddddeal with the
This guy is a creep and there's no excuse for that. That being said the workplace is 99.9% to blame for this situation. Anyone that knows you well enough to warrant coming to your workplace should have your number and can text you when they get there. Under no circumstances and for no reason should you ever give out a co-worker's information to people coming through the door. It's not only illegal but you could be seriously endangering them, it's even shittier when they're working as a server, it's their job to be nice and personal with people and now your directing creeps to them under those circumstances.
Was working in a U. S. Navy hospital, and HR gave my work number to someone I DIDN'T want to know where I was. Raised hell about it. Six - seven months later, the love of my life calls HR, and they didn't give him my number, but called me & gave me HIS number.
This business needs to tighten security. Letting him in and leading him directly to her is dangerous. What if he tried to hurt her.
And yet people wonder why others DON'T want public transportation - this is one of the reasons! I want to be responsible for me, I don't not want to rely on someone else, and I do not want to put my safety in someone else's hands.
I refuse to ride in a cab or Uber/Lyft without my husband. When we got married in Vegas, on our honeymoon, I didn't take into account the elevation change when timing my migraine medicine before an incoming storm. We ended up having to take a cab to a hospital because I took my medicine too late, and I needed the IV migraine cocktail. (I have halo migraines that sometimes mimic stroke symptoms with sudden barometric pressure changes.) The cab driver *knew* my husband was the one in the cab with me, but still texted my husband later, thinking it was my phone, under the guise of concern and he was "just checking to make sure I was better." My husband was pretty pissed, but that was the first time he really saw what women go through and why we're so paranoid/careful about our safety when it comes to men we don't know. He doesn't really let me out of his sight now if we're out somewhere, because I get anxious around guys I don't know.
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Also coworkers: if someone randomly shows up at work asking to see someone, get their name Ask them to wait while you go get your coworker. Privately ask if your coworker is expecting a visitor and identify the person. Do not just go "Yah follow me" srsly.
Off point, but anyone know what a “glicky 3” is? Looked it up and didn’t find anything
it's possible they meant "blicky", which is slang for a handgun. i’m not sure though
Load More Replies... Men reading - I hope you're internalizing these stories and that it's very clear what sort of behavior is creepy and scary. No woman you've just met owes you ANYTHING. They don't owe you their number, their time, an explanation, a smile. Be courteous, respect boundaries, respect women BECAUSE THEY ARE HUMAN AND YOU ARE HOPEFULLY NOT A COMPLETE AS*HOLE SCUMBAG.
I also hope that there are men who don't brush this of as an "incident" or "not all men" thing. This happens way too often
Load More Replies... I was fortunate that one of the retail jobs I worked had a woman manager for a while, and she knew and took seriously the problem of creepy men stalking women working at the store. We had policies that no one was to ever, EVER give out someone's last name, phone number, any info re: work schedule, no personal info at all, and it helped. She knew that when some doof came in and announced that he was "here to see Jan!" that the appropriate response is "This is a place of business, so we don't do social visits, can I take your name and number, and I'll pass it on to her," not even confirming if I was there at the moment or not. Guy employees walked us to our cars if we felt unsafe. We were about to switch to a new practice of fake names/nicknames on our nametags when she moved out of state. Guys, no woman who is engaging with you in any professional capacity wants to be harrassed by you. I don't care if you saw skyrockets and heard bells ringing. LEAVE US ALONE.
I am a Lyft driver and have been for over 4 years and almost 8,000 rides. I absolutely hate when I see these stories. I personally have driven women home when she was obviously intoxicated and the guy they were with was adamant they were staying with him, even though she wanted to go home. I've put guys out of my car when I hear a woman say that he's not going home with her, but he's dead set that he's going home with her. This behavior begins with a lack of honest parenting. I have made mistakes in my past, but even being in my 40's, if my dad were to see me or hear that I was disrespectful towards a woman he would still hit me and ask me what I was thinking. Buying a woman a drink or dinner means the only thing that you are entitled to is THANK YOU!!!! I would love for this OP to report the driver to Lyft so that's he is deactivated and banned from Lyft. We have had to all watch videos and agree to not do this. Yes even having people come onto me as they driver I still refuse.
I completely agree with you!!!! Just because you get her a drink or a meal, does not me "other activities" are required! - But ladies, trust me when I say this, us men would LOVE for you to buy us a drink once in a while if you are interested in us.
Load More Replies... When I was in HS, long ago before smartphones & apps, I lived in a small rural town & worked at a store in the local (tiny) mall. I helped this guy who was with his wife, shopping for curtains, towels & sheets, because they had just gotten married & bought their first house. I wasn't doing anything more than exactly what I was trained to do (ya know, being friendly, helpful, & knowledgeable about the products we carried & what we could order from the catalog). I think I gave them a discount, bc that's the kind of thing I did when newlyweds came in. It was something nice I could do, as sort of a congrats. I was 16, this guy was in his late 20s-early 30s. He came back every day for a month, asking for me. The girls in the catalog dept created a code to warn me over the intercom so I could go hide. He sat out in the parking lot as we left one night, so he knew my truck. I was terrified he'd follow me home. My (big, mean-looking) dad had to start picking me up from work bc I was so scared.
Reading so many stories like this you'd start to believe humanity is absolutely doomed. Really what kind of brain eating fungi did these ppl dip their covid selftests in to become that frigging creepy..?
Load More Replies... To the one commenter up there who thinks it's a good idea to be able to request a driver of a specified gender: how many creeps using Uber or Lyft do you think would abuse that feature to harass women drivers?
Only allowing it on female accounts could help, but there's no perfect system. A-holes will be a-holes, us normal guys just gotta get better at calling them out when we can
Load More Replies... I know this isn't the point of the article, but it bothered me how she said "black women get stalked and murdered frequently because of rejection", as if this doesn't happen to women of any ethnicity/race.
Look up "missing white woman syndrome". In Canada, indigenous women are targets and the police take the assault, murder or disappearance of an indigenous woman less seriously than that of a white woman. You might interpret the statement to mean that your issues are denied and ignored. I interpreted it to mean that, as a white woman, I've had to be careful, but I don't have the added layer of racism on top of that.
Load More Replies... My wife's car had a dead battery one morning before work. No problem just uber and I'll take care of it so it doesn't happen tomorrow morning. First thing he jokes about is how women are all afraid they'll get r8ped or k1lled. Red flag number 1. Then he tells her about how he moved back 5 years ago to find his high-school sweetheart. She has my wife's first name so he picks up every passenger with that name hoping to find her one day. Red flag number 2. Then when it's time to be dropped off the child safety lock is turned on and he complains that its stuck like that and has been meaning to get it fixed. Red flag 3. She complained about him to Uber but I doubt they did anything because nothing actually happened.... But this guy is a serial killer in the making...
driver appropriately.They claimed to not know where he was and offered me 5 bucks off my next ride. I contacted the police and different agencies.No one cared. I now use Uber and alert drivers I am with service dog.Lots cancel ride after.Which works because I don't want the ignorant hassle.Both companies have the exact same jargon about driver education. It's a joke.Same email service and mail is never answered by same person.All designed to never be held accountable for anything except the bill.Defensive riding only. I am charged forever.
Horrible,this the norm.A few yrs ago a class action lawsuit was started against Uber so many women had been raped.Uber and Lyft both primary concern is not being held liable. I had Lyft driver wig out when he saw my service dog.His harness.collar and leach identify he is a professional working dog. I was half way in the vehicle when he began screaming NO DOG and he floored the car. I dropped the leach,purse was scattered all over the parking lot with a takeout container of food.The car door was banging on my lower torso and somehow I landed on pavement.The driver never slowed down and as far as I know never looked back. I was all scraped up and a wreck.When I got home I contacted Lyft assuming aaassdtguthewouddddeal with the
This guy is a creep and there's no excuse for that. That being said the workplace is 99.9% to blame for this situation. Anyone that knows you well enough to warrant coming to your workplace should have your number and can text you when they get there. Under no circumstances and for no reason should you ever give out a co-worker's information to people coming through the door. It's not only illegal but you could be seriously endangering them, it's even shittier when they're working as a server, it's their job to be nice and personal with people and now your directing creeps to them under those circumstances.
Was working in a U. S. Navy hospital, and HR gave my work number to someone I DIDN'T want to know where I was. Raised hell about it. Six - seven months later, the love of my life calls HR, and they didn't give him my number, but called me & gave me HIS number.
This business needs to tighten security. Letting him in and leading him directly to her is dangerous. What if he tried to hurt her.
And yet people wonder why others DON'T want public transportation - this is one of the reasons! I want to be responsible for me, I don't not want to rely on someone else, and I do not want to put my safety in someone else's hands.
I refuse to ride in a cab or Uber/Lyft without my husband. When we got married in Vegas, on our honeymoon, I didn't take into account the elevation change when timing my migraine medicine before an incoming storm. We ended up having to take a cab to a hospital because I took my medicine too late, and I needed the IV migraine cocktail. (I have halo migraines that sometimes mimic stroke symptoms with sudden barometric pressure changes.) The cab driver *knew* my husband was the one in the cab with me, but still texted my husband later, thinking it was my phone, under the guise of concern and he was "just checking to make sure I was better." My husband was pretty pissed, but that was the first time he really saw what women go through and why we're so paranoid/careful about our safety when it comes to men we don't know. He doesn't really let me out of his sight now if we're out somewhere, because I get anxious around guys I don't know.
Load More Replies... Also coworkers: if someone randomly shows up at work asking to see someone, get their name Ask them to wait while you go get your coworker. Privately ask if your coworker is expecting a visitor and identify the person. Do not just go "Yah follow me" srsly.
Off point, but anyone know what a “glicky 3” is? Looked it up and didn’t find anything
it's possible they meant "blicky", which is slang for a handgun. i’m not sure though
Load More Replies...
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