Cops: Woman abducted while trying to catch Lyft

An Allston woman says she was held against her will and taken for a ride before escaping at a gas station early Sunday morning after she tried to get a ride-hailing car home near Faneuil Hall, Boston Police said.

The woman, who was only identified as being in her early 20s, told police early Sunday morning she was out with friends at a bar on Union Street and attempted to order a Lyft home between 12:40 a.m. and 1 a.m., a spokesman for Boston Police said.

The woman’s phone died while waiting for the ride but a group of males who were also waiting for a ride-hailing vehicle pointed her toward a silver or tan sedan, she told police.

The driver of the sedan, an unknown black male, drove with the woman in the backseat for about 30 minutes before stopping at a gas station for snacks, the woman told police. Another man allegedly approached the vehicle and began reaching into it when the woman kicked the door open, fled on foot and began flagging down cars.

The woman stopped a passerby who transported her back to Allston. She later declined medical treatment, telling police she had not been assaulted. Police said the woman remembers a driver saying she was close to the New Hampshire border.

Boston Police are investigating the incident, and no arrests have been made.

A spokeswoman for Lyft said Sunday the company has been in touch with the rider and has “deactivated the driver” during an investigation, although it’s unclear if the woman was abducted by a Lyft car.

City officials in December unveiled a 31-page set of guidelines for bars and nightclubs regarding safety in the wake of several high-profile abductions last year. A 23-year-old mother, Jassy Correia, disappeared last February after a night out celebrating her birthday in downtown Boston and was later found dead in a Rhode Island man’s trunk four days later.