Chicago area college students imprisoned in Denmark for 2 weeks after Uber fare dispute

Smartphones display Uber car availability in New York on Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. (AP / Julio Cortez)

CHICAGO — Two Chicago area college students are being held in a Copenhagen prison after a ride with an Uber driver went wrong. Their parents are there now doing what they can, but they keep running into legal roadblocks.

The two college students are St. Ignatius College Prep alumni, and were visiting friends for spring break in Denmark. Their parents said they got in an Uber, realized they put in the wrong address, and asked to get out.

What transpired next is why they have been in a prison for nearly two weeks.

“Approximately 6 a.m. in the morning, I got a text from a foreign number saying, ‘Mom, I’m in prison in Copenhagen,‘” Sara Buchen-Ray said.

She was four hours away from picking up her 20-year-old son, Owen Ray, from O’Hare International Airport on March 31 when she got his text.

Now she’s in a Copenhagen Airbnb, doing anything she can to get him out of a Danish prison. That’s where Owen was put after he rode in an Uber with a friend.

“When they got in the Uber, they realized the wrong address had been put in,” she said.

Buchen-Ray said they asked to get out and ordered a new ride.

“Approximately five minutes later, the Uber driver circled back around and found them walking and started yelling at them,” she said.

Buchen-Ray says this is all according to video played in a Danish court hearing this week.

The Uber driver accused Owen and his friend of not paying for the ride, but receipts show they did.

“The Uber driver first says ‘I’m going to call the police,’ and you can hear them saying, ‘We’ve done nothing wrong. Call the police,‘” his mother said.

“While they were waiting at the gates to board their planes to go home, they were arrested by the Danish police,” said Buchen-Ray’s attorney in Chicago, Jordan Finfer.

Finfer said Owen was arrested at the airport. He has not been charged or convicted, but Finfer said he was detained due to “flight risk.”

“Owen is still detained, is likely to be detained through the end of the month – he’s never been charged,” Finfer said.

“They are in prison where they’re locked up 23 hours a day,” Buchen-Ray said.

Owen’s mother said she gets to speak on the phone with him one day a week, and visit him one day a week.

Now they are waiting for a trial that should take place this month, but it’s the years to come she is the most worried about for Owen.

“There are going to be ramifications from this. You know, when you’re locked in a jail cell for 23 hours a day, you can’t come out without nothing,” she said.

That trial should take place this month. However, there is a 5-day court holiday for Easter, which could push it back. So far, Owen and his friend have missed two weeks of college. Owen is a student at Miami University in Ohio.

Article by Marissa Sulek.