Man gropes and kidnaps Lyft driver as she tries to call for help, Oklahoma cops say

Police say an Oklahoma ride share driver’s smart thinking may have saved her life.

Lyft driver Stephanie Hopkins just wanted to get her passenger — Adam McKean, 35 — to Owasso after she picked him up from Arnie’s Bar and Grill in Tulsa Saturday afternoon, KOTV reported.

She says McKean seemed drunk when he got into the front passenger seat, KOKI reported.

What happened next is every ride share driver’s worst nightmare.

“I’m just driving and he’s slowly moving closer to where you are, and he starts rubbing the back of my head,” Hopkins told KOTV.

McKean stole her phone, but Hopkins, who’s been driving Lyft for four months, grabbed it back and used Lyft’s SOS function which called police, KOKI reported. She yelled that she needed help and that she’d been kidnapped, officials say.

“He was covering my mouth... Trying to reach down my pants while I was driving saying women don’t understand and women belong to men,” Hopkins told KOKI.

Officials say McKean forced her to drive, holding her foot down on the gas pedal, according to KTUL.

Owasso is roughly 20 minutes northeast of Tulsa, but the ride lasted two hours, KOKI reported.

Amid the chaos, Hopkins was able to give police a description of her car and officers were eventually able to catch up to the vehicle, KTUL reported.

“The driver immediately exited the vehicle and was yelling for help as she ran back toward the officer,” Sergeant Chris Latta told the news outlet.

McKean was arrested and charged with a number of offenses including sexual battery and kidnapping, KOTV reported.

In a statement, Lyft called the incident “frightening,” according to the news outlet.

“Safety is fundamental to Lyft. What the driver described is frightening, and the rider’s access to Lyft has been permanently removed.”

Officials credit Hopkins’ good sense in preventing what could have been a tragic outcome.

“We always tell people if you are kidnapped or forcibly taken do the best you can to not go to a separate location,” Latta told KTUL. “She showed a lot of courage and her actions actually saved herself.”

Hopkins hopes Lyft will improve the app’s SOS function; she says her call was transferred three times before she reached police, KOTV reported.

“They need to be on the line as well to be able to say this is the vehicle she is in, this is the location her car is at,” she told KOKI.