Zero stars.
An armed passenger last week forced a person who was working for a ride-sharing application to drive from Arlington to south Florida, law enforcement authorities said.
Miguel Pastran Hernandez was to be dropped off on Friday night at a gas station in North Texas, but upon arrival insisted on a new destination about 1,300 miles away, the authorities said.
Pastran Hernandez produced a gun, and the driver heard the sound of a round being chambered within it, according to an account of the trip described by an FBI special agent in an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Miami.
Pastran Hernandez threatened to tie up and put the driver in the back of the car, authorities said. The victim pleaded with Pastran Hernandez to be allowed to steer in order, the driver later told the special agent, to have an opportunity to flee.
Pastran Hernandez ordered the victim to drive toward Florida and maintain the speed limit, according to the affidavit.
The driver felt obliged to follow the passenger’s direction.
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They drove until about 11 a.m. on Saturday, when Pastran Hernandez demanded that the driver call the driver’s children and say that the driver was on a long work trip so that the children would not be suspicious of the absence.
Pastran Hernandez discovered that the driver had an unloaded 9mm handgun in the car. The driver had ammunition stored separately in the car. The passenger took the gun and ammunition.
Pastran Hernandez ordered the victim to continue driving east toward Miami, authorities said.
By Saturday evening, they had arrived in Florida.
Pastran Hernandez ordered the victim to drive to Miami Beach, where Pastran Hernandez watched from a distance a person whom he said he intended to kidnap and hold for a $3 million ransom, according to the affidavit.
On Monday, Pastran Hernandez made the driver travel to a Dollar General store in Hialeah, Florida, to buy supplies for the planned kidnapping, authorities said.
The driver hid in the store bathroom. Pastran Hernandez walked or ran away. About three hours later authorities found Pastran Hernandez in Hollywood, Florida.
Pastran Hernandez admitted in an interview with a law enforcement officer that he had kidnapped the driver at gunpoint, the special agent wrote in the affidavit.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida on Tuesday charged Pastran Hernandez with kidnapping, carjacking with the intent to cause death and serious bodily harm and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
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