Police investigating after Lyft driver becomes unknowing drug mule
By Amy Cutler
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SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (KPHO/KTVK) — A Valley rideshare driver said she was helping out a customer by delivering a wallet. Only it wasn’t a wallet, it was drugs. Scottsdale Police confirm they’re investigating. The driver, Amanda Stroud, said she’s been a Lyft driver for two years. She’s helped customers out in the past, delivering purses and luggage, but this time it was different.
Stroud said her passenger Saturday night asked if she’d deliver a wallet, saying it would save him money for the return trip. “A friend left this in my house. Is there any way you can take it to her without taking me with you,” she said. “I didn’t question him. He sat it in my back seat, and I assumed it was a wallet.” She said the destination was a gated community, and when she arrived there she waited ten minutes, but no one came out.
She decided to check the wallet, only inside that bag wasn’t a wallet, it was a bag of mushrooms.
“I could have gotten pulled over with this in my car, and this could have been turned around me when I didn’t even know it was there,” Stroud said. Stroud said she reached out to Lyft twice, then Scottsdale Police and Arizona’s Family.
“Just now this makes me wonder like, what is really going on? Is this a thing now?” Stroud said. She’s said she’s concerned that “this could be the next way for drugs to be transported, and it could be very serious.”
Scottsdale Police said it’s the first they’re hearing of something like this. Arizona’s Family also checked with Phoenix Police, and they said it was new to them too. Stroud had this message for those behind it.
“Rethink your decisions. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth putting me in this position. If you want to do this, [it] should be on you, not putting me in the middle of it,” she said.
Arizona’s Family also reached out to Lyft, which said they’re looking into it but haven’t provided a specific statement.
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