u/Additional_Pain_7366

Unbelievable what happened to me today; our tax dollars experiencing an epic fail.

Two weeks ago, I received a concerning letter from the Venice PD West Traffic Division. It was a form letter accusing me of having caused an accident and leaving the scene - back in April. A grainy photo was enclosed which was from late one night, with my car parked curbside yet without anyone inside of it.
No date given.
No victim named.
No location listed.
No explanation,
Just me being accused of not remaining at the scene after having reversed my car and bumping into someone else’s car.

When I arrived at the Venice PD today to address this problem, the cop approached me guns blazing (meaning bad attitude; not literal guns). I was defensive right away and intimidated yet none of this made sense. I thought he must’ve had some sort of evidence on video; something to warrant this strange yet serious accusation against me - but, no.

The cop showed me the report which only confounded me further. No individual was named nor even notated as having filed this claim! Instead an implausible story unfolded as I read this report. Supposedly I was in an underground parking structure on the “night in question” (which had two different dates listed; each a month apart). My car backed into the victim’s car and I drove away.
The victim (whose name is missing throughout this report) wasn’t in their car nor anywhere near it the report alleged. Yet “someone” (another omitted identity) who just happened to be a witness yet somehow through telepathy knew who the cars owner was in this big parking garage, called the person (whose number he couldn’t have known and whose car was “bumped into by me”) and that cars owner suddenly appeared and began a pursuit of me! 🤪
I had no words. Yet the cop is awaiting my admission to this bazaar report. No names given of this phantom, hit-n-run car victim. No names given of the “someone” who saw this random car get hit and just happened to have the owners phone number teleported into his brain so he could call that person. Who then emerged (having not seen my car) yet followed me to try and stop my car after this hit-n-run.

After my bafflement turned to anger, I tore into this cop. He’d approached me with this serious charge while in the police stations lobby. Yet the minute I became angry and incensed he shepherded me outside of ear range from the other desk cops.
I demanded he walk with me to my car to show him it needed a bath yet had zero markings on it from this made-up hit-n-run. Well that’s when this cop changed his attitude to one of equal bewilderment.
He didnt know why he’d been assigned this case against me either. He confessed that their department gets over 50 reports like this a month; car hit-n-runs with zero occupants at the time but seeking financial gain. I asked him why the cops call us alleged perpetrators in before vetting whomever it was making these bogus reports.
The cop told me he’d suggest that to his boss since these false reports arrive at their precinct weekly in droves 🤔. I told him that since he was admitting to all these reports not panning out, then he and his fellow cops should go after these criminals for filing false police reports! He admitted that was a crime in and of itself and would be the preferred method were it allowed by his boss.🤷‍♀️
I was finally able to leave but first I told this cop that I’d better not receive a phone call or another citation about this same issue again. I needed reassurances from him that he was closing this bogus investigation and that none of it was affecting my driving record. His final words to me were that I’d have heard from my insurance company, anyway, if it had been a legit complaint to start with. 🫪🤯

Has anyone else encountered such a strange experience with the police? I had to leave my sick and dying cat at home alone to respond to this ludicrous and confusing situation and it’s valuable time I can’t get back.

Tonight I butted heads with UE in a particularly angry and frustrated way. Several orders I agreed to pickup today were canceled while I was enroute to the various restaurants. In one of those case, I’d driven 14 miles to the Resturant because the payout was $40.00.

I, also. took a shop n pay order which would’ve paid me $22.00 yet the customer only wanted a pricey bottle of tequila the store didn’t even carry! Another canceled order.

Finally, UE allowed a customer to remove their tip. And that was my last straw. By this time I’d have accumulated about $80.00; instead I had $37.00! I wasnt paid for mileage, either, to the store which didn’t carry the tequila the customer wanted which cost me about $6.00 in gas!

This is down right theft. I’m not spouting off about this fact only since I’m angry. I’m saying it because it’s a fact. We have an agreed upon contract; UE sends us something to deliver to their customer, then we get PAID. When the store was out of the specialty tequila, the customer wanted a refund. UE marked the order as “canceled” by me! Each time I got a rep on the phone about this, they passed me off to a supervisor who soon hung up!

Has anyone challenged UE in court about this or found an arbitration committee which handles these complaints from gig workers? I know the day will come (as it has from numerous shopping/delivery apps), when there will be a successful class action lawsuit against UE and thousands of their drivers will get small checks in the mail. But how do we, collectively, spearhead such a lawsuit ourselves?

That day can’t come soon enough!

IC used to roll out these “incentives” once a month or so here in Los Angeles. For a month now, we’re getting these daily. I don’t like them because each order pays out something like $8.05 to shop two orders which is no bargain, even if you achieve the lame bonus of $15.00.

Are any other shoppers in LA noticing this new trend? It’s hard to get a $20.00 order anymore with these non-incentive “bonuses”! So I’ve been shopping Ubereats which pays well especially when orders are bundled. I called IC to ask if I could be omitted from these “incentive” shops; I don’t want to participate in but they said I could not. 🥺