Here’s a harrowing tale for all you Uber riders: a New York man visiting D.C. says an Uber driver kidnapped him and two of his colleagues and took them on a wild ride across state lines to Virginia.

The Post reports that the man, Ryan Simonetti, CEO of New York-based company Convene, used the app to hail an Uber car to pick him and his two colleagues up from business meetings near the Verizon Center yesterday afternoon. When they approached the car, which had Virginia license plates, they saw that a D.C. taxicab inspector was talking to the driver. Here’s the rest of the story, via the Post:

Simonetti got into the front seat and his colleagues got into the back seat. The inspector walked away. Thinking back, Simonetti suspects the inspector was going to check the documents the Uber driver had handed to him. Then, the Uber driver started driving down the street. The inspector turned his lights on and started to follow.

“That cop’s following you. What’s going on?” Simonetti said he asked the driver. He said the driver told him not to worry. “Oh no, he’s not a real cop,” the Uber driver replied. And then Simonetti said the driver then told them: “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to run this red light.”

Then Simonetti said, the Uber driver headed for the 9th Street tunnel, got on I-395 and proceeded to race down the highway going, “. . . well above the speed limit.”

Simonetti says that the incident was like “an episode of cops,” with the taxi hack inspector pursuing the Uber driver. Simonetti also told the Post he and his colleagues tried to physically force the driver to brake before demanding he pull off onto an exit ramp off I-395 going into Virginia. The driver complied and let the passengers out, at which point the hack inspector pulled in front of the driver so he couldn’t pass. According to Simonetti, the driver then “turned around and went the wrong way up the exit ramp, into Virginia,” and the hack inspector stayed with the passengers.

A spokesperson for Uber issued the following statement: “Uber became aware of a potential incident involving an UberBLACK trip in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Rider safety is our #1 priority. We will cooperate with authorities in their investigation and have deactivated the driver pending the outcome.”

A request for comment from the D.C Taxicab Commission. We’ll update when we learn more.

Filed Under: dc taxicab commission, uber, uber chase, uber kidnapping,