Within seconds, Julia says she was facing a parent’s worst nightmare.
She, her boyfriend, and the four kids between them, took an Uber back to his place from a Toronto Raptors game during March Break because of a flat tire.
Julia’s five-year-old daughter fell asleep in the far back row during the ride. Once they arrived, and before getting out of the vehicle, the couple discussed aloud their plan for how to unload everyone.
Julia would grab the garage door opener from her car so they could all get inside the house, while her boyfriend started unloading the other three kids, their car seats and winter coats from the Uber. Julia would then carry her sleeping daughter out of the vehicle once the path to the back seat was clear.
“I’m returning to the road and I realized the car, it’s gone,” she said.
“I remember looking up and down the street. I don’t see a moving vehicle at all. The three kids are already in hysterics. ‘Why did he leave with her? Where did he go?’ I’m trying to keep it together for my son.”
GTA mom speaks out after an Uber drove away with her 5-year-old daughter
Julia was stunned and her disbelief only grew when she says Uber representatives refused to help them or Toronto police contact the driver. CBC Toronto is only using her first name to protect the identity of her daughter.
“All we wanted was for them to contact the driver — that’s it — and they refused.
This was “no time for bureaucratic red tape,” Julia said. “This was not a purse or a phone left behind. It was a five-year-old child on a winter night.”
Julia called 911, and police arrived within a few minutes. An officer called Uber to get contact information for the driver but Julia says a representative for the ride-sharing company refused to provide it — stating the police needed to fill out a form.
Uber’s guidelines for law enforcement say emergency disclosure requests must be submitted through the company’s public safety response portal or by email using its emergency disclosure form.
Toronto police confirmed they did not receive help from Uber. Instead, spokesperson Stephanie Sayer says officers were otherwise able to reach the driver.
“The driver was unaware that the child was still in the vehicle,” Sayer said in an email. “When officers arrived, the child was found in good health. Paramedics were called as a precaution.”
Julia says it took about an hour and a half for police to find her five-year-old. Officers then drove Julia to her daughter who was “unharmed but in hysterics.” Police found the girl and the driver about 20 kilometres away from her boyfriend’s house in the city’s north end.
Julia’s boyfriend later received a $10 credit from Uber, which she considers “a massive slap in the face.”
An Uber spokesperson said in a statement the safety of everyone who uses the platform is the company’s top priority.
“We recognize how distressing this situation was for the family involved and are thankful that the child was safely reunited with their parent,” reads the statement.
“We immediately began reviewing the details of this incident internally to identify opportunities to improve our processes and support systems.”
The company says its support team followed Uber’s standard protocols, which are designed to protect the privacy and safety of all users.
Uber says its team advised the rider to contact law enforcement and, when police reached out, the company shared its protocol for an expedited request. Once Uber received the request the company says it supported the solution.
Technology analyst Carmi Levy says this is an example of how traditional elements of customer service have been lost in today’s gig economy.
“Uber is able to deliver, in theory, a lower cost experience because it dispenses with a lot of the overhead of traditional transportation services,” said Levy.
“There’s a cost to their efficiency and their cost effectiveness. And that cost is if something goes wrong, it isn’t as easy as just calling a phone number and getting help.”
Julia has since escalated her concerns with Uber.
She says she’s looking for both compensation for their emotional stress and for the ride-sharing company to commit to changing its emergency response procedures so that others don’t experience what she did if minors are left in an Uber.
“I made it very clear, you can offer me $1 million. If there are no policy changes, I will not be accepting that, I need to see policy change here,” Julia said. “No one should have to go through what we went through.”
