A 25-year-old woman in Jakarta escaped an abduction attempt by a driver for ride-sharing app Grab, according to a viral post, with the attempt foiled after she used the emergency button in the app.
As reported by Detik, the passenger, who is identified by her initial T, on Thursday ordered a Grab car to get from her residence in Palmerah, West Jakarta to ICE BSD in Serpong with a stop by her office in Dharmawangsa, South Jakarta.
About two minutes into the trip, T was able to faintly hear someone communicating with the driver in cryptic code via a walkie talkie or a cellphone.
T’s suspicions were raised when the driver took the car towards the Jakarta-Tangerang toll gate in Kebon Jeruk instead of driving south towards Dharmawangsa.
“He (the driver) kept saying he’s following the map’s navigation whenever I reminded him that my first destination is Dharmawangsa,” T said.
Once they were on the toll road heading towards Tangerang, the driver argued with T and insisted he was going to take her to Dharmawangsa street in Tangerang instead of South Jakarta. Panicked, T shared her location with her boyfriend and then tapped on the emergency button in the Grab app, which connected her to the company’s call center.
As she explained what was going on to the call center operator, the driver screamed at her and continued speaking in code with whoever he was communicating with.
The driver then dropped T off on the side of the toll road before he drove away. T’s boyfriend eventually picked her up.
After the incident went viral, Grab said the driver who allegedly attempted to abduct T has been suspended while the company carries out an investigation into the matter.
Police say that they have also begun investigating T’s claims.
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