A Chicago-area man says he mistakenly got into another man's car who was posing as an Uber driver and was beaten as the driver and a female passenger demanded cash.
Zachary Chirillo was leaving a bar in Wicker Park and ordered an Uber he says. When a car pulled up, he unwittingly got into a man's car who was posing as an Uber driver.
"[The driver said] 'Hey, are you waiting for your Uber?' And I said 'Yes,'" Chirillo said.
That's how easy Zachary Chirillo says it was to get him into the car of criminals.
"I realized we were going away from the Dan Ryan to go home," he told NBC 5. "He's like 'I think my phone reset, any way you can give me your address again,' I said 'No problem.'"
The driver, and a female passenger, now had Zachary's Chicago Ridge address.
"He's like 'It's gonna be over $100. I'm like, 'I know, just run my credit card.'"
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But the driver demanded cash and Chirillo says they ended up at a downtown ATM.
He says the driver told him to fill his gas tank and buy him so food so they could call the fake fare even, but Chirillo refused.
He says things escalated from there into a fight with the man at a busy intersection. He says the female passenger came in from behind with a tire iron and struck him three times. He wrestled the tire iron away from the female passenger and threw it at the car's window, shattering it, he said.
Chirillo said witnesses saw that part, but didn't help him, and despite being beaten and bloodied police thought he was the instigator and arrested him for criminal destruction of property. He says the couple was let go.
"I understand there's destruction of property," he says. "But I am bleeding everywhere. It didn't just happen."
His story is one of several fake Uber driver stories around the nation, including one poser charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting women he picked up in the Chicago area.
Chirillo says hopes others can learn from his mistake.
It's been two weeks, but Chirillo just now has the time and nerve to file his report with police, he says. He says he's going to do so at a different district.
Uber said it confirmed with the Chicago police the man Chirillo said tried to rob him was not a driver for the rideshare company.
