TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Miami Beach Lyft driver was arrested Monday after police accused him of raping and robbing a woman in a hotel room after he took her home from a bar, NBC 6 reported.
According to the report, the alleged incident occurred on Feb. 10 at the Eden Roc Miami Beach Resort on Collins Avenue.
Police said the woman could recall taking a Lyft ride to a bar on Washington Avenue and getting the driver’s number so she could call him for a ride later.
The report said the last thing she remembered was drinking at the bar. She told police the next morning, she woke up completely naked and noticed her cellphone, ID and $500 in cash were missing.
“The victim does not recall returning to her hotel room,” Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said, according to NBC 6.
The woman went to the lobby for help and contacted Miami Beach Police, telling investigators she believed she’d been raped. The woman was taken to a rape treatment center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the report said.
Police said the woman provided them with her Lyft records and cell phone information, which they used to identify the driver, 35-year-old Samuel Bucevschi.
The report said her Lyft history showed several unauthorized ride requests made that morning, adding up to about $300.
Security video from the hotel showed Bucevschi carrying the woman who appeared to be “too intoxicated to walk on her own,” Rodriguez said. About an hour later, he could be seen on surveillance video leaving her room, holding two cellphones.
Bucevschi told police he remembered picking the victim up for her ride and walking her to her hotel room, but said “nothing happened.” He refused to provide them with a DNA sample, the report said.
According to the report, Bucevschi was arrested on charges of sexual battery of an incapacitated victim, grand theft and three counts of fraudulent use of a credit card and booked into a Miami-Dade County jail, where he is being held on a $520,000 bond.
His arrest comes just a month after another Miami Beach Lyft driver was accused of raping a tourist his car, the news station reported.
A Lyft spokesman released a statement in response to the most recent incident:
“Safety is fundamental to Lyft. What is being described is horrifying and the driver’s access to Lyft has been permanently removed. We have reached out to the rider to offer our support and reached out to law enforcement to offer our assistance with their investigation.”