r/RBI2 • u/ILoveFarrells • May 04 '26
Uber driver took off with $50k and cancelled the ride
Oh hey! I just discovered this sub after posting to the old RBI! I've got to find this box; I'm desperate. Here was my original post:
Hi! I desperately need help. On 4/21 in Centennial Colorado we scheduled an Uber to pick up a box of parts. An Uber driver "Ricardo" showed up in a red 2018-2019 Hyundai Sonata, picked up our two boxes, then cancelled the ride. Now we cannot contact the driver, get his plate number, or anything because the ride was "cancelled".
2 weeks of begging Uber for info and they've thrown us around with "sorry for your concern a team member will be with you shortly" and "I hope we've resolved all of your issues, we contacted the driver" with no action at all.
We have gone to the police. They can't do anything quickly and have to get a warrant etc. How do I find this kid and get this stuff back? I'm hoping it's a misunderstanding and the box is happily riding around in the back of his car but I'm afraid he may have seen the part numbers and decided to sell the stuff.
I'm going to go sit and request and cancel rides for the next few hours in hopes I can get a hold of him, but Reddit can you help please?
48 Hour Update: The police have done nothing; referred this to "Investigations." We hired a private investigator. $700. He just called and said based on the pics of the car and the guy's face he freaking found him! He has the address the car is registered to, the guy's cell phone, and he is having a "package recovery specialist" head over there now. We're going to see if we can recover this today.
UPDATE: FOUND! OMG!
GUYS! Okay so we hired the PI. I've never even talked to a PI in my entire life. He found the person, had his "recovery specialist" go to the guy's house, flash his badge, and the guy took him to the package. I'm almost embarrassed to tell everyone but I'm so happy and I want to help anyone else who might come across this post in the future. The Uber driver had "gotten confused" and "thought the package went to Lowes" so took it there. No crap, it was at Lowes, the hardware store. It took the PI a total of 4 hours. He used some vehicle database and distinctive marks on the car to find the guy, find his house, and verify his first name.
Holy cow I have learned so much. Thank you everyone for your help!
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u/airfryerfuntime May 05 '26
$50,000 of what? What are 'parts'?
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u/TheToastyWesterosi 29d ago
Right? And I don’t care what it is, if it’s worth $50k, I’m transporting it myself. I’m certainly not hiring a ride share to pick it up lol. What the fuck.
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u/ILoveFarrells 29d ago
We had no idea. We've never seen parts so expensive. They're normally like $100 max. It wasn't until the driver took off with them that we looked them up to repurchase them... then panic struck.
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u/timothyhayy 29d ago
How in the world did you not know the price FIRST, though? You must be RICH rich. Uber is not going to help
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u/ILoveFarrells 29d ago
We hold in our hands probably ten thousand parts per day. We purchase them, too. Never in my life have I seen parts this expensive.
For a full picture of how it all happened, customers hand us their loose parts and a totally blank circuit board, and we solder the parts on for them. The customer handed us their box of parts and empty boards, we called the courier (it's Uber Courier, not the regular ride share), he showed up to transport the parts from our main location to our second location. Between Uber Courier, Quicksilver, and DB Couriers, we do this ~5-10 times per week. The courier picked up the package like normal, left, then 30 minutes later we got a message saying "Uber Courier has cancelled".
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u/DeathWorship 29d ago
I guess the lesson here is use legitimate courier services with insurance and bonding from here on out. Uber customer service is nonexistent as a rideshare, what made you think their courier service would be any different?
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u/ILoveFarrells 29d ago
You know those tiny computer chips used on RAM and other circuit boards? It's a box of those. Here is something similar: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technology/MPF300TS-FCG484I/7356291 . And to answer your question that I know you'll definitely ask next haha... no, we did not know the value of what we were sending until it was taken... we went to buy new ones for our customer and saw how expensive they were.
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u/RobertPower415 29d ago
Seems like it would be a very hard item to flip, like where on earth would this guy try and sell these. That is what you need to figure out. Check the obvious like marketplace and CL but maybe try some computer stores some buy and sell stuff. New eBay listings maybe. There can’t be many people selling these illicitly
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u/ILoveFarrells 29d ago
Dang. Great suggestion. I just checked one of the parts on eBay (MWDM2L) and it seems sort of popular: https://ebay.us/m/Wk9Y9J. Just to be clear, I already checked through this exact seller and he is definitely not our guy, but I just wanted to post an example that these are indeed going on eBay.
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u/RobertPower415 29d ago
Well that’s not great news for you unfortunately, but definitely keep an eye out for new listings especially from new accounts with that being the only listing.
Computer chips also tend to have precious metals in them. If it was a large quantities might be worth checking metal refiners
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u/rrsafety 29d ago
How did he know it was worth stealing?
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u/ILoveFarrells 29d ago
At first, I would have assumed he would have no idea. We had no idea they were worth that much. But then we realized the parts were packaged in a clearly marked ESD bag with the manufacturer's part number printed on it. He had someone in the front seat holding the package who could have said "hey, what on earth are these?" Then Googled the part number. The parts are easily searchable on Google and the price would have come up.
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u/Cxntycouture 29d ago
Do you have the guys licence plate?
Uber has all his info and should be provided for police report
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u/liftlovelive 29d ago
Yeah the license plate should have been visible on the app for you to verify you had the correct car. I just don’t know if it remains visible after the transaction, I’m guessing it doesn’t since you would have already gone down that route if it was. Such a bummer, people are scum. I hope you can locate him, I’d keep hounding Uber. Sometimes making a public post on their social media will get their attention pretty quick.
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u/surefall-glade 29d ago edited 29d ago
Ooo military parts.
They pack a lot of contacts (51 here) into a tiny, lightweight footprint with a metal shell that provides EMI shielding and robust mechanical locking. The standard was originally developed for NASA.
I sincerely hope you get it back. - good news it would be hard to flip those - unless this person knows the mil-surplus gray market exists.
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u/ILoveFarrells 29d ago
Ooooooh I'm so thankful to come across your post, just because I think you know my desperation. Thank you!
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u/surefall-glade 28d ago
If it were me - I’d offer $1000 reward for the order returned in full no strings attached. They’d be more likely to accept that for a quick buck I’d imagine. Post flyers up in the area.
It’s not ideal but in that position it’d be a win vs 50k-ish loss.
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u/sacluded 29d ago
File a lawsuit against Uber and Doe 1. They'll identify doe 1 real quick.