Alleged Bank Robber Turned to Uber for a Getaway Driver After Heist

Ride share drivers carPhoto: Robyn Beck / AFP (Getty Images)

A man in Michigan was caught pretty damn quickly last week after allegedly committing a bank robbery due to using the Uber app to call up a get away driver.

Huntington Bank on Greenfield Road in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan, was robbed on November 16, according to CBS Detroit. The suspect left the scene of the robbery apparently in an Uber driver’s vehicle. The unwitting getaway driver was pulled over by police after they had dropped off their fare on an eastbound ramp to I-696. The driver then led police to the apartment complex where they’d dropped robbery suspect Jason Gregory Christmas. From CBS:

Police learned the driver worked for Uber and had dropped off the suspect at The Heights of Southfield Apartments.

Investigators used information from the driver and bank employees to identify the suspect as 41-year-old Jason Gregory Christmas. Police determined Christmas’ exact address at the apartment and began conducting surveillance.

Christmas was seen walking on the property and was immediately arrested by police. Police say he was wearing the same clothing used in the bank robbery, and was carrying several hundred dollars taken from the bank.

Red stains from the robbery were allegedly found on Christmas’ clothing and more stained money was found inside his apartment, along with the note Christmas’ allegedly passed to bank tellers. Not sure why he apparently held on to that, maybe something for the scrapbook? It will look nice hodge-podged next to his latest intake photo and arraignment paperwork.

Christmas is not looking at a very happy holidays—he’s currently sitting in Southfield City Jail on a $500,000 bond. I’ve got hometown pride but man, if Michigan isn’t the Florida of the midwest. It reminds me of last year when another son of Southfield committed the most hilarious theft of a $250,000 Bentley and was swiftly caught cause, you know, he was driving a Bentley.

G/O Media may get a commission

It’s pretty dangerous out there for Uber drivers as well. One driver shot and killed a man during a robbery attempt, though both driver and fare-paying passenger were unharmed. More often than not, however, Uber drivers are the victims of crime rather than unwitting accomplices. Uber reported thousands of sexual assaults and even a few murders of its drivers in 2019.