Fake Uber Driver in Tuscaloosa Charged with First-Degree Kidnapping

The man accused of impersonating an Uber driver and picking up intoxicated women in the Tuscaloosa area has been arrested on charges of first-degree kidnapping, police said Friday.

The suspect, 61-year-old Tommy Wayne Beard, was stopped Sunday night on a Northport highway with a college-aged woman unconscious in his backseat.

He originally told police he was an Uber driver taking the woman home, but when she woke up, she told Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's deputies that she lived near the University of Alabama campus, not in Northport, and that she didn't remember getting in Beard's car.

Beard then admitted he was not an Uber driver but pretended to be one, and police discovered photos of unconscious women in his back seat on his phone.

Beard was originally released without being criminally charged, but a warrant was issued for his arrest this week and he was taken into custody Friday and charged with first-degree kidnapping, according to Gary Hood, the commander of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit.