A 78-year-old woman who hailed a ride from a service in New York City ended up in the hospital after a horrifying turn of events.
According to WABC-TV, the woman requested a driver from Access-A-Ride to take her to a physical therapy appointment.
The driver allegedly passed the point where the woman was to be dropped off and refused to let her out of the car, police said. After that, a dispute ensued.
Footage shared on social media showed a man, apparently the driver, dragging an elderly woman out of the backseat of a car.
A third man recording the video could be heard asking the two what was happening, and the driver shrugged without giving a response.
DISTURBING: NYC hired driver allegedly robbed a 78-year-old women of her phone and money and proceeded to throw her out of his car.
Incident happened this afternoon on East 34th Street in Flatbush. pic.twitter.com/Q1pdT4iRYe
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) August 31, 2022
While laying on the ground, the woman said the driver stole her phone. The videographer took the phone back from the driver, at which point the driver got back into the driver’s seat of his vehicle.
“Can you not do that?” the man taking the video asked. “Can you not stop and run away?”
Should this driver face severe charges?
The man told the driver he would have to run over him if he wanted to leave the scene, but the driver sped towards him anyway. The man taking the video was struck by the vehicle before moving to the side, but the driver got away.
The videographer then walked towards the woman and asked if she was okay.
“No, I’m not,” she said. “I’m a 78-year-old lady, and he threw me out of a cab. He took my money. He took my phone.”
The man returned the woman’s phone to her, but she was clearly shaken up by the events.
Both the elderly woman and the man taking the video were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, WABC-TV reported.
Multiple Twitter users expressed horror at the driver’s behavior.
“Absolutely horrible!” one user wrote. “Despicable behavior towards the elderly.”
Absolutely horrible! Despicable behavior towards the elderly.
— Muse4Change (@garde_victoria) September 1, 2022
“The man seems to have no fear of law,” another user wrote.
The man seems to have no fear of law.
— Unforgetable_1990 (@migrant_1990) September 1, 2022
The driver remained at large as of Thursday morning, the New York Post reported. Both the New York Police Department and Taxi and Limousine Commission were investigating the incident.
