LA woman says she pulled off a true-crime documentary trick after her Uber driver started discussing a script about murdering passengers

A Los Angeles woman who goes by Zo on TikTok, under the account @zoekbirdsong, shared a video recounting what she described as one of the most frightening experiences of her life. According to her account, she had booked a long-distance Uber ride in Los Angeles at around 2 to 3 in the morning, and what started as a routine late-night trip gradually turned into something that left her fearing for her safety.

Zo said the driver introduced himself early in the ride as a filmmaker, claiming he had worked with high-profile actors. She said she did not take his claims seriously and was mostly tuning him out, scrolling on her phone with one AirPod in while he talked. About 30 minutes into what she described as a roughly two-and-a-half-hour ride, the driver reportedly broke a period of silence and brought up a new project he said he was working on.

According to Zo, he told her, “I’m thinking about making another movie, by the way. Like, it seems like it’s gonna be a really good one. Like, I’ve been drafting it up and stuff. Like, I’ve been writing the script for it.” When she asked what the movie was about, she said he told her it was about an Uber driver who kills his passengers.

TikTok user says true-crime content shaped her response during a frightening late-night Uber ride

Zo said the comment caused her to freeze immediately. “I hear that, I immediately freeze. I’m on my phone, I’m like f-ing around, like I’m on my phone, I immediately freeze, I break into a sweat,” she said in the video. She described going into what she called fight-or-flight mode while the driver continued talking about the idea as if, in her words, she was not sitting right there.

Drawing on what she said she had learned from true-crime content, Zo claimed she began quietly leaving traces of her DNA throughout the car. She said she pulled out strands of her hair and tucked them into the floor and the gaps between the seats, pressed her fingerprints onto the windows, and even bit off her nails and left the clippings behind.

She said the inspiration came partly from a film called Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey, in which a victim leaves fingerprints to help investigators trace her kidnapper. “I don’t know where all that came from. It just happened. Like, I just started doing anything I could to like try and give myself a fighting chance,” she said in the video.

At the same time, Zo said she pulled up the driver’s profile photo on the Uber app and sent it, along with the time, location details, and license plate number, to around five or six friends and her brother, even though she said none of them were awake at the time. She said she chose not to contact her mother to avoid causing her alarm. Similar Uber ride gone wrong stories have emerged from other cities.

She said the remaining two hours of the ride were spent in a state of intense anxiety, flinching each time the driver reached for his water bottle. She said she was “on the verge of tears” and described having a panic attack in the backseat. “I was terrified. I was so scared,” she said. According to her account, she eventually arrived at her destination safely.

In the video, Zo said the driver had also claimed, before the conversation turned alarming, that he had previously cast LeBron James and Michael B. Jordan in his films, though she made clear she did not believe those claims.

After sharing the story, she urged her followers, particularly women, to trust their instincts. “Always trust your gut. Always trust your instinct, because honestly, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” she said. She also advised against taking long Uber rides alone with a stranger late at night.

The video drew a range of responses in the comments. One viewer wrote, “As a dispatcher, next time text 911. We have a text-to-911 system that is always being monitored. Stay safe.” Another noted that a similar movie plot already exists and questioned whether the driver may have been attempting a joke, writing, “This plot line and movie in fact exists already. So like…. Was he trying to be funny?? Cause it’s not.”

A third commenter pointed out that the Uber app has a safety feature, asking, “Isn’t there a button on the uber app that can inform uber if you’re feeling in danger?” Similar concerns about driver conduct have also been raised in other delivery service incidents. Similar concerns about driver conduct have also been raised in other delivery service incidents, like an Uber driver’s alleged involvement in a deadly California fire.