Travelers arriving on the world’s busiest airport are at present coping with a creepy and probably harmful safety downside. Atlanta’s 11Alive experiences that town’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has been swarmed by pretend rideshare drivers who’ve been making an attempt to lure passengers into their vehicles.
The downside has been identified for a while, however 11Alive wished to expertise it firsthand. So the station despatched one in every of its investigative experiences out to the airport with a hidden digital camera. What she captured was disturbing.
11Alive Investigator Savannah Levins noticed the difficulty firsthand, capturing the interactions with a hidden digital camera. Within moments of strolling out of bags declare, 4 drivers approached her. “You can pay however you want” and “just give me your address” have been just a few methods they tried to safe the gig.
Men, watching and ready from varied spots across the airport’s baggage declare, strategy passengers disembarking, then attempt to get them to rent them for a experience may be very bizarre and disturbing. To most people who find themselves acquainted with ridesharing in any manner form or type, you already know the method for hiring a driver doesn’t work like this. Normally, you hail a experience from an app that options figuring out particulars concerning the driver — such because the automotive’s make and mannequin, a license plate quantity, and identify. These apps additionally characteristic straightforward emergency contact choices.
Atlanta’s Police Department informed 11Alive that it’s conscious of those pretend rideshare drivers. While the cops consider cash is the primary motive for what these individuals are doing, authorities say they’re not ruling out worse issues, like human trafficking. “We’re concerned about everything. It’s not just one thing,” Atlanta PD’s Airport Precinct Commander Major Collier informed 11Alive.
What’s worse is that regardless that police say they’ve held sting operations which have resulted in arrests and citations for these pretend rideshare drivers, a few of them are repeat offenders with lengthy rap sheets who go proper again to the airport to strive their luck once more.
Mengistu Zarzar is one in every of them, based on Atlanta Police. Records present he’s dealing with a number of expenses this 12 months alone for attempting to entice vacationers into his automotive illegally. He even took off with one couple’s baggage when airport safety tried to intervene, based on experiences and APD physique digital camera video.
A previous Clayton County arrest warrant listed him as an escape threat with violent tendencies, figuring out him as armed and harmful. Atlanta Police confirmed the division had an energetic warrant out for his arrest for yet one more solicitation try at Atlanta’s airport in March 2024.
A lady whom 11Alive interviewed about being approached by these pretend drivers recognized Zarzar as a person who tried to get her to pay him and provides him her handle. Atlanta police say they’ve somebody monitoring the rideshare space of the airport 24 hours a day. Airport officers stated in a assertion they’re working to maintain passengers protected and that they need to solely settle for rides from drivers hailed by means of apps and never ones from solicitors on foot.
Source: jalopnik.com