A Lyft driver has been branded a hero after kicking out a woman and her boyfriend for making racist remarks in a video that has gone viral on social media.
The Lyft driver, who identified himself as James W. Bode, posted the video taken from his dashcam on Facebook. The video, timestamped 10:37 p.m. on Friday night, shows a woman entering Bode's car, with a man following behind her.
'You're Like a White Guy'
"You're like a white guy," she says when she enters.
"What's that?" he asks her.
"You're like a white guy?" she says. "You're like a normal guy, like you speak English?"
Bode then can be seen turning around to face her in the video. "Nah, you can get out of the car," he tells her.
"What?" she asks.
'That's Inappropriate'
"That's inappropriate," Bode says. "That's completely inappropriate. If somebody was not white sitting in this seat, what would be the difference?"
"Are you serious?" says the woman, whom Bode identified as "Jackie." Bode then appears to recount the exchange to the man entering the car, repeating again that he's not going to take the ride.
The man calls him a "fu*king asshole" and threatens him, saying he should "punch" him "in the fucking face."
As the woman exits Bode's car, the man can be heard calling him a "n*gger lover" and telling him to "get the fuck out of here."
Bode then looks out the window at them and says he's going to call the police. "You guys are racist fu*ks," he tells them. Watch the video below:
Restaurant Gets Review-Bombed on Yelp
In his post, Bode noted that the incident happened outside of Fossil's Last Stand on Race Street in Catasauqua, which he said appears to be owned by the customers who requested the ride. The woman was later identified on social media as Jackie Russ Harford and her male companion as John Keglovics - a Support Department Manager at Innovative Control Systems, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In the wake of the viral video, Harford's restaurant has been bombarded with negative reviews on Yelp, bringing down the establishment' rating down to one star.
"DO NOT VISIT THIS PLACE. It's values are lacking and the food isn't made with love, in fact, BOTH the owner and his wife are racist and participate in bigotry," wrote one user.
"This establishment is run by open racists who publicly use the n-word and make distasteful
comments about people of non-white ethnicities. Do not eat here," commented another.
Lyft Says Its 'Looking into' Riders, Offers Thanks to James
After the video was shared on Twitter, Lyft responded by with a tweet that read, "We are incredibly grateful to Lyft driver @Jameswb333 for instantly shutting down this hate & upholding our no tolerance anti-discrimination policies. We're looking into these riders & are in touch with James to show our thanks."
