LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Lake County sheriff’s detectives on Tuesday said that a suspicious incident at a bus stop last week in unincorporated Clermont turned out to be an “innocent misunderstanding.”
A student at East Ridge Middle School told deputies that a man in a silver SUV approached him around 8:30 a.m. Oct. 20 at a bus stop in the area of 3rd Avenue.
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According to the boy, the man knew his name and told the child to get into the vehicle, deputies said.
Detectives said they located the driver of the SUV and determined that he is a driver for the rideshare company Lyft. The man was in the neighborhood that morning trying to locate a customer who had requested a ride and happened to have the same name as the middle school student walking to the bus stop, detectives said.
According to detectives, the Lyft driver approached the student, verified his name and told him he was there to pick him up.
The boy said he called his mother and ran to a neighbor’s home, where he waited until the bus arrived, according to investigators.
Investigators said that the Lyft driver has been “completely cooperative” and they were able to verify the information he provided about the customer he was in the vicinity to pick up.
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