A man already struggling to make ends meet had his car impounded and was hit with two citations - all because he says he was trying to help.
Preston Conner has been driving his own car for Uber for about a year. It is also how he gets his wife to and from work. Before picking her up Thursday night, he turned the app off and offered what he said appeared to be lost travelers, a ride.
"He said, 'to the MGM,' said Conner. "I said, 'alright come on. He said, 'how much is it?' I said, 'It's free. Nothing. I don't want nothing for the ride.'"
Suddenly, his stop near The D and Four Queens took a turn.
"The gentleman asked me if I worked for Uber, I said yes, he appears on the other side asking me to get out of the car," Conner said. "He patted me down, he told me what was going on, told me I couldn't give rides to people."
It turns out, the three people Conner said he offered a free ride to were working undercover for the Nevada Transportation Authority. We reached out to the NTA, and were told the three people were three of their eight investigators in Las Vegas. Since ridesharing was legalized in Nevada, they have been doing investigations into rideshare drivers working off the app for cash. But Conner said that's not what he was doing.
"If they were coming back closer to my wife's job anyway, why not?" he said. "I told them I had time to kill, I was going to pick up my wife. I was not hustling. I told them free, no charge."
The Nevada Transportation Authority said they started investigating drivers working off their apps because of the safety threat it poses to riders. They said riders are not covered by the ridesharing insurance policy unless they are using the app.
Conner called 13 Action News this evening to let us know all the citations were dropped at a hearing Friday afternoon.
