An Uber driver was arrested in Azusa Friday for allegedly groping a victim after she got into his vehicle, thinking he had responded to her ride request.
Officers responded just after 10 a.m. Thursday to the 800 block of North Azusa Avenue to investigate a report of a sexual battery and learned the victim had called a Uber driver to pick her up at that location, according to a police statement.
“When the alleged Uber driver arrived, the female victim noted that the vehicle was different than that of the one the service had assigned to her,” police said. “The victim assumed a simple mistake had been made and elected to enter the vehicle.”
The driver then began asking inappropriate questions before “inappropriately touching the victim,” police said.
“The victim was able to fight off the driver and exited the vehicle,” according to Azusa police. “The vehicle made a U-turn and sped away.”
Detectives identified 40-year-old Azusa resident Luis Gerardo Pena-Ayala as the suspect and he was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of kidnapping and sexual battery, police said.
“It was confirmed that he is a driver for Uber, but was not the driver assigned to the original pick up,” police said, adding that anyone who suspects a driver or vehicle is not the one assigned to them should not get into the vehicle until before contacting the company for confirmation.
Pena-Ayala was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, according to sheriff’s inmate records.