NYPD: Fake Uber Driver Threatens, Robs Passenger

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are looking for a man who they said posed as an Uber driver and then threatened and robbed a woman who got into his car by mistake.

The victim had been out with some friends in the East Village celebrating a birthday and decided to call an Uber car around 2 a.m. on May 15 to go home to Brooklyn, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.

She was on the phone with Uber as she and the driver tried to find each other, when suddenly a black sedan pulled up.

Police said the victim got into the car on Mangin and East Houston streets after the driver said he was there to pick her up.

Once inside, she began to realize the driver wasn't headed towards her home when he headed north up the FDR Drive.

"Immediately I questioned him, 'Why are you going uptown? Why are you taking this route? Don't you have to go back down?' But he was like, 'Oh no, I'm taking the bridge, and he's going to go to Queens and back into Brooklyn," the victim told D'Auria.

Then as he passed the 96th Street exit on the FDR Drive, police said the man threatened to shoot and sexually assault the woman and demanded money.

"He's driving me to a really dark area past the FDR and then all of a sudden he's like, 'Give me your phone, give me your money.' He asked for my PIN number and he was threatening to rape me and shoot me if I didn't," the victim said.

The woman handed over her wallet, phone, jewelry and other items.

She jumped out of the car when the driver turned onto 125th Street, D'Auria reported.

"The car door was open and I ran," the victim said.

Eventually, she found two police officers who got her a cab to go home.

Police have released a sketch of the suspect. He's described as black man in his 30s with short hair and a beard.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.