GOLDEN – Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies arrested an Uber driver suspected of trapping a 15-year-old girl in his car and kissing her against her will last Saturday.
Deputies said 29-year-old Ahmed Muse picked up a 15-year-old girl shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday in Golden from her workplace.
Authorities said the teenager had her coworker schedule an UberPOOL ride for her, which allows riders to save money by carpooling with riders headed in the same direction.
Deputies said Muse picked up the girl while another passenger was sitting in the back seat of the car. Police said the girl’s destination was first on the route, but Muse said there were issues with his app and proceeded to drop the other passenger off at I-76 and Pecos west of downtown Denver.
The girl told authorities that she offered to pay the driver an extra $10 to drop her off several blocks from her house earlier in the ride, but she told officers that he refused to stop.
The Sheriff’s Office said they reached out to the other rider who corroborated the girl’s account of the events.
Deputies said Muse then drove to the girl’s neighborhood and stopped, where he locked the doors and kissed her against her will. Eventually, he unlocked the doors and let her out of his car.
Muse was arrested Sunday and is now facing charges for second-degree kidnapping, false imprisonment and harassment.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office encourages riders to use Uber and Lyft‘s rider safety features while riding with a stranger. They also suggest sharing the driver’s license plate number as well as the driver’s name with family members or friends.
