Uber Driver Starts Recording After Overhearing Possible Sex Trafficking

Keith Avila, 34, is an Uber driver from Elk Grove, California. At first, he thought a drunk passenger throwing up in the backseat would be the worst thing that could happen on the job.

But in December 2016, Keith picked up two women and a 16-year-old girl from Sacramento. They asked him to drive them to the Holiday Inn in Elk Grove.

Keith overheard the conversation taking place in the backseat, and quickly realized something was horribly wrong. The two women seemed to be giving the teenager suspicious instructions on how to handle the man, “John,” who was waiting for her at the hotel. They instructed her on how to collect money from him. Keith couldn’t help but think this was a case of sex trafficking.

Immediately after dropping them off at the hotel, Keith called the police. He then waited outside the hotel and recorded himself describing, in harrowing detail, what he’d just experienced.

- Barbara Diamond, LittleThings.com