Grand Jury Charges Fake Uber Driver with Two More Counts of Kidnapping
Back in March, Tuscaloosa County deputies pulled over a 61-year-old Northport man who was allegedly posing as an Uber driver and taking a young woman described as "unconscious" miles away from her home in Tuscaloosa.
The suspect, Tommy Wayne Beard, eventually admitted he was not actually an Uber driver, and when police searched his cell phone, they discovered photos of several women unconscious in his back seat.
On Friday morning, a grand jury charged Beard with three additional crimes -- another count of first-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree kidnapping and one count of impersonating a transportation network company driver.
Captain Kip Hart, the assistant commander of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes unit, said investigators have been looking into Beard since he was first stopped in March and were able to identify two additional victims that he picked up while posing as an Uber driver.
Beard was booked in the Tuscaloosa County Jail Friday on a combined bond of $30,000.