On May 30, 2025, a rideshare driver named Craig Lawrence Edelstein of La Mesa, California got out of his vehicle and assaulted me, stuck gum on my windshield, boxed me in, and smashed my car hood. Then he drove away. This is the documentation.
I was driving westbound on 700 Grape Street in the two lane. A black Kia was next to me in the three lane. I merged in front of the Kia — a completely normal lane change. The driver became upset.
The driver pulled up alongside me and threw a piece of gum onto my windshield. I said, "what the fuck?" He then started following me while we were both still moving. I tried to get away.
We ended up stopped at Juniper Street and Third Avenue. He drove in front of my vehicle and boxed me in — deliberately blocking me from driving away. I was trapped.
He exited his vehicle, approached mine, and angrily punched the hood of my vehicle with his right fist — leaving a 10–12 inch dent requiring full hood replacement. He said nothing. Got back in his car.
He drove away southbound on Third Avenue without a word. Hit and run. I called 911. I photographed his plate. SDPD arrived and documented everything. The vehicle was registered to Craig Edelstein.
Edelstein's explanation in court was that he "didn't like my driving." He also claimed his dashcam was damaged — yet had no trouble providing selective dashcam photos that conveniently placed my vehicle at the scene at the exact time of the 911 call.
Every item below is a real document. Nothing is reconstructed. Click any image to view full size.
Edelstein was an Uber driver. I was an Uber driver. There's an open question about whether either of us was online at the time — and Uber has gone out of its way to make sure that question stays open.
In August 2025, I submitted a formal CCPA data request to Uber for my own login/logout timestamps from the day of the incident. Uber stonewalled. Those records disappeared. Uber has likely been fined for non-compliance. It would've been cheaper to just hand them over.
The same day I escalated to the CPUC and OSHA, Uber replied almost immediately claiming the other driver was "not online at 3:10 PM." One-day turnaround on that. My records from August 2025? Still missing.
Even if Edelstein wasn't logged in at 3:10 PM — he's still an Uber driver who physically assaulted another Uber driver, destroyed property, and fled the scene. That's a hit and run. That's not who Uber should be putting behind the wheel. Period.
On a separate, later claim, Uber provided false information to Progressive Insurance about my own online status. That time I was relieved — I knew I wasn't online and I still had the logs to prove Uber was wrong. Before those vanished too.
This isn't just a grievance post. Here's the paper trail.