NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A Pasco County Uber driver is pushing back after the Pasco County Sheriff's Office earlier identified him as a "kidnapping suspect" on social media.
To be clear: No arrests have been made, deputies say the investigation is still ongoing, and nobody is saying John Geary has been anything less than cooperative with authorities. He has been talking to them.
So what happened?
This all began when the Pasco Sheriff's Office posted to social media about a "suspicious incident" that it said happened around 7:10 a.m. on Dec. 22 in the area of Trinity Boulevard in New Port Richey. Deputies said they were called by an Uber passenger who reported a physical altercation with a stranger found underneath a blanket in the backseat of the Honda Accord she'd hopped into.
The agency later said it was searching for Geary, the Uber driver, and later named him as a "suspect."
But, here's the thing: Geary says none of that is true...at all.
According to Geary, the passenger tired to get him to drive a different way than the GPS was saying, so he asked her to update the destination inside the Uber app. There was a disagreement, he says, and the passenger indicated she wanted to get out of the car.
Geary says she tried to jump out while the car was still moving, as he tried to find a safe location to stop. She kicked his door, he said.
Once outside, Geary says the passenger threatened to call the police. Meanwhile, he says he ended the trip and went on with his day.
It wasn't until later that he got a phone call from his girlfriend saying the sheriff's office wanted a word with him. You can read more of his story here.
Investigators are now trying to sort out exactly what happened.
