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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Woman Raped by Man She Thought Was Lyft Driver, Sources Say

By  Murray Weiss and Kathleen Culliton | October 20, 2016 6:45pm 

MANHATTAN  — A woman told police she was raped Wednesday by a man she thought was her Lyft driver, the NYPD and a report said.

The 22-year-old woman ordered a Lyft car on West 17th Street in Chelsea around 2 a.m. Wednesday that she expected to arrive in five minutes, according to police and a New York Daily News report.

When a black car pulled up just one minute later and the man inside told her he was her driver, the woman climbed in the back and was driven to an intersection she believed to be near East 28th Street and Lexington Avenue in Gramercy, she told investigators.

The driver stopped the car and raped his passenger, then offered to drive her to Brooklyn, sources said.

The woman declined, walked home and called a friend who told her not to shower and to go straight to New York University Hospital, police and sources said.

The woman reported the rape to hospital staff, who alerted police, officials said. 

Investigators have not yet been able to locate footage of the crime because the woman is not absolutely certain of the intersections where she was picked up and dropped off, according to police. Investigators believe she was picked up on 17th Street between Seventh Avenue and 10th Avenue, NYPD officials said.

A friend who had been out with the woman the night before confirmed to police they had been together at Artichoke Pizza on West 14th Street and 10th Avenue until about 1:20 a.m. and that the woman was not intoxicated when they parted, police and sources said.

Lyft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.