It was 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, and Lakeya Foushee had just gotten off an eight-hour shift from her job at Wingstop in North Carolina and was planning on sleeping a few hours before waking up for her second job as a server at another restaurant.

But once she and her friend sat in the back seat of the Uber they had booked, the driver refused to drive them home unless the two Black women placed their purses in the trunk – a bizarre request they believed was based on racism.

“He raised his voice and got very belligerent,” Foushee, 24, explained in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star.

“He said, ‘You don’t want to put your things in the trunk, I’m going to cancel the ride right now. Get out of my car.’”

Lakeya Foushee (right) had just worked all day before getting into an Uber ride whose driver ordered her and her friend to place their purses in the back seat. (Photo: TikTok)

“I asked him, ‘Do you have everybody that comes in here put their purse in the trunk?’ He didn’t answer. He just sat there.”

That was when Foushee pulled out her phone and began recording, prompting an immediate attitude change from the driver.

“He proceeds to lower his voice and use calmer words, not saying the things he said before because he knew he was wrong,” Foushee said.

“I know he was acting differently because I was recording.”

Foushee posted the video on TikTok a couple of days after the interaction, and it has gone viral, receiving more than 74,000 views and more than 500 comments as of this writing.

The video shows the two women holding cups of juice in their hands from Wingstop, along with paper bags, she said, that contained bones for the dogs.

Once the video started, the driver began focusing on the drinks, telling them to place them in the cup holder, which they did.

“If it was just about drinks, I promise you, we would have never made it that big of a deal,” she said. “I literally would have thrown them out. It’s just juice.”

But she was not willing to part with her purse by placing it in the trunk.

“This is my purse with my money, ID and inhaler,” she said. “Everything in here. I didn’t feel comfortable putting it in the trunk.”

The Ride Home

The driver ended up driving them home without them placing their purses in the trunk, but she said once they arrived at their destination, the driver locked the doors, preventing them from leaving unless they promised not to leave a bad review.

“He literally locked the doors and said, ‘Sorry about what happened, but before you get out, you need to tell me if you’re going to leave a bad review because if you’re going to leave a bad review, then I’m going to leave a bad review on you.’”

Although she planned to leave a bad review, she never got around to it because so many commenters on TikTok had tagged Uber, the company ended up reaching out to her and refunding her money for the ride.

Foushee said she had just pulled a double shift at her two jobs on Saturday when she booked the Uber for herself and her friend, who had met up with her at her job, working from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at her first job before working from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Wingstop.

After closing the restaurant, it took them 20 minutes to book the Uber ride, which was 23 minutes away, so by the time he pulled up, they had been waiting almost 45 minutes.

She was also going to have to wake up at 7 a.m. the following morning to go to her second restaurant job where she was anticipating a busy day because it was Easter Sunday.

“I was so tired,” she said. “My feet hurt from working, and I just wanted to go home.”

That is why they refused to exit the car when the driver ordered them to do so, telling him to call the police in the hopes they would either resolve the issue or at least watch over them while they waited for a second ride, because it was an unsafe area.

She said her friend’s phone battery had died, and her phone battery was about to die, showing she had only 8 percent of battery power.

“I didn’t want the police to beat him up, arrest him and take him to jail,” she said. “I just wanted to feel safe while I waited outside for another Uber with a dead phone.”

But the driver began driving them home after several minutes of bickering without them having to call the cops.

She is not aware if the driver was terminated, but said she is unable to click on his profile on the Uber app.

“So I guess that was their resolution,” she said. Nobody called us back and told us anything yet.”

Uber also did not respond to inquiries from Atlanta Black Star.

“Lived in NYC 18 years of my life so far and ain’t NEVER heard no cab driver tell a lady to put her purse in the trunk,” said one of the commenters on her video. “Lmao, tf kinda scam he tryina pull?”