Cops Say They've Caught the 'Rideshare Rapist'

Police in San Francisco say they've caught a man they'd been hunting as the "Rideshare Rapist." Orlando Vilchez Lazo, 37, has been charged with four separate assaults going back to 2013, and police suspect more victims are out there, reports the Washington Post. Authorities say Lazo would show up in a car with rideshare tags in areas where companies such as a Lyft and Uber did a lot of business. Victims would enter his car thinking he was their driver, and he would then take them to another location and rape them, according to the charges against him. It was still unclear whether Lazo actually worked as a legit driver for any of the usual companies.

"The fact that he's committed these four rapes over five years led us to believe he was a very dangerous person and he wasn't going to stop until we caught him," says police Cmdr. Greg McEachern, per SFGate. The commander adds that it's "hard to believe" Lazo committed only these four rapes over that stretch. Police knew from DNA that they were hunting a man they referred to as the Rideshare Rapist, but the crime-scene DNA did not match any currently in the police system. The most recent attack occurred in June, and Lazo was stopped during an undercover operation earlier this month. Police say they obtained a DNA sample that links him to the four violent attacks. (More rapist stories.)