It all started with an innocent trip from the airport to home. Who knew it would become a news item?
We heard about the trip when Clay Aiken tweeted Thursday about his scary Uber experience. I posted it last night…but it is short so…here it is again!
.@Uber drvr threatened me w/a bat b/c I took too long to get out!! Uber won’t take him off of the road! Beware NYC
So…I guess if you are Clay Aiken, word gets around!
He got messages from:
Professor Taxi
New York City 311
NYC Taxi Talk
Greentaxisofnewyork
They all said to report the man and some even sent him a link to the correct forms to fill out.
Meanwhile… Here comes the press!
New York Daily News
Uber driver threatens Clay Aiken with bat, ‘American Idol’ star alleges in tweet
Former “American Idol” star Clay Aiken was too idle for a New York Uber driver who allegedly threatened him with a baseball bat.
The North Carolina crooner tweeted Thursday night that his Uber driver “threatened me” with a bat because “I took too long to get out!!”
“Uber won’t take him off of the road! beware NYC,” Aiken wrote on Twitter, posting a photo of the offending cabbie’s license plate.
Sherzod Abdullaev, the cabbie who drives and owns the car linked to the license plate, told the Daily News he doesn’t know who Clay Aiken is. But he said he had to wield the baseball bat he keeps in the car for safety when he felt threatened by a passenger he picked up from Newark Airport earlier this week.
Abdullaev, 34, said this incident started when a rider — who he described as a young, white man with brown hair — was dumping his belongings into the Uber car in a hunt for a lost wallet after reaching his destination on W. 110th St. on the Upper West Side.
“I tell him, ‘Sir, don’t put here, put everything outside,” Abdullaev said. “He said, ‘F–k you,’ at me. I said, ‘Excuse me?’”
The driver then said the passenger slammed his passenger-side door “heavy — boom!”
“I go outside for my safety. I take this baseball (bat), for my safety,” Abdullaev said. “Coming around the passenger side, I said, ‘Don’t touch my door.’”
Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesman Allan Fromberg said that no complaint was filed, but that the agency sent a direct message to Aiken on Twitter asking for more information.
“We strongly encourage him to reach out to us and we stand ready to assist him through the consumer process,” Fromberg said, adding that Aiken should go to the police if he felt physically threatened.
The driver has been suspended from Uber as the company investigates the complaint, according to Uber spokeswoman Susan Hendrick. The app has also reached out to Aiken, Hendrick said.
Aiken’s publicist did not return a request for comment.
Abdullaev said he started driving with a bat after a passenger slugged him during a trip in Brooklyn.
Well….lets hope everything turns out well and the crazy driver decides he needs a different kind of a job!
~~~~
Ok, Clay…what new adventure will you be in today??