Taking an Uber home after a night out is such an everyday occurrence that we don’t even think twice about doing it, but the trip back home for one Miami-based woman turned into a living nightmare when she barely escaped being human trafficked.
TikTok user Karinaalegre shared a video on the app which appeared to have been recorded not long after the harrowing experience took place. Clearly fresh from crying and still trying to get her emotions in check, Karina explained that she had been for a night out with friends and had taken an Uber home by herself. The female driver took her down an unfamiliar route, however, which aroused Karina’s suspicions. She then become terrified when she saw that the car had entered Miami Airport.
Knowing that it made no sense for her ride to go through the airport to get to her house, Karina called up her friend and told her she was scared and felt she was in an “unsafe situation.” While on the phone, Karina asked the driver why the GPS was taking them this way and the woman remained quiet. When pressed further, the driver simply said this was where the GPS was telling her to go. At this point, Karina was “freaking out” and felt like she was “in a movie.”
When the car approached departures and arrivals, she decided enough was enough and unlocked the car door and “hopped out.” The driver drove after her, claiming that Karina was safe with her as she was a mother to four kids, but Karina ordered her to leave her alone or she would call 911. Making her way to the parking lot, Karina found a security guard and at that point it seems the driver finally left her alone.
“Long story short, I’m home and I’m safe and God was with me today,” Karina concluded. “But I wanted to share this video because you don’t know who’s out there and you don’t know what the heck is going on.” She warned that Miami is “statistically, one of the hotspots for human trafficking” so she warned anyone in her area using Uber or Lyft to “please be careful” and to preferably go with someone else.
The threat of human trafficking is very real, but sometimes hysteria can create some false or misguided claims — like the woman who went viral for claiming that she was almost trafficked at a Walmart, until her story was refuted by an employee who witnessed the whole thing. In Karina’s case, however, the fact that she spoke to a security guard who admitted that there’s “a lot of trafficking that happens” around the airport area speaks to how close she may well have come to a fate that doesn’t bear thinking about. At least this guard was much more sympathetic than those cops who told two women who, like Karina, were almost trafficked by an Uber driver that it was their “fault.”
As you’d expect, this story chilled TikTok to the bone. “I AM WATCHING THIS AS I AM IN AN UBER ALONE,” replied one anxious commenter. Others warned that, if in this situation, you should “always click the emergency button on the app saying you feel unsafe.” Similarly, another recalled that the Uber app once alerted them to the fact their driver had gone too far off-route, sending a “do you need to call 911?” ping.
In fact, Uber itself reached out to Karina and seems to be undertaking its own investigation of what happened here with her co-operation. “We’re so sorry this happened and glad to hear you are safe,” shared the company’s official TikTok. “We were able to locate your ride and report. We’ll continue to be in touch to learn more.”
As it’s so difficult to determine a specific number, for obvious reasons, figures vary but it’s believed that somewhere between 15,000 to 50,000 U.S. women and children become victims of human trafficking every year. If Karina sharing her scary story helps at least one person to think twice about getting an Uber alone or to be more aware of where their driver is taking them then she has made a difference.