*Houston-based TikToker Tierra Young Allen, who is jailed in Dubai for “screaming” at a man in public, may have been the victim of a common scam on foreigners.
Allen, 29, has been detained in the UAE for the past two months after a man filed a legal case against her for “screaming,” Insider reports. EUR reported previously that Allen was traveling with a friend while on vacation when they got into a fender bender in the friend’s rental car. According to the outlet, the vehicle was towed back to the rental company. Tina Baxter, Allen’s mother, explained to Fox 26 that when her daughter went to the rental agency to retrieve her personal belongings from the car (including her phone, wallet, and passport), “She found out she could only receive those items if she paid an undisclosed amount of money. She dealt with a very aggressive individual, a young man there who was screaming at her.”
Allen yelled back and was arrested and charged with screaming in public. Newsweek reports that police also confiscated her passport when she was detained.
The rental car company allegedly demanded large sums to return Allen’s passport and phone – a known scam, Insider reports. According to Baxter, staffers provoked Allen into screaming.
Allen was reported to police by an employee at the rental car company for violating a law that criminalizes swearing, rudeness, and insulting gestures, Insider reports.
“She didn’t get arrested for the accident. She got arrested for going to the rental car company, asking for her items that were left in the car when they opened the case,” Baxter told Insider. “She became the main target when they realized she was a US citizen.”
In an interview with Insider, UK-based human rights advocate Radha Stirling, who is helping Allen, said her client’s story is one she has seen before.
“I just had three Americans in the past couple of months who said they were in pretty much the same situation,” said Stirling, who runs an organization called Detained in Dubai that gives legal assistance to foreigners in the UAE, per Insider. “They ended up paying $20,000 that they didn’t owe to a rental car company just to get their passports back so they could go home.”
An American social media influencer, Tierra Young Allen, has been detained in Dubai, for over two months after being charged with “the crime” of screaming and is now facing jail time. pic.twitter.com/2BFCvxvrpF
— Instablog9ja (@instablog9ja) July 20, 2023
Allen is currently on lockdown in her Airbnb as she can not leave the country pending the charges.
“If the police choose to prosecute, that can take in itself four months, six months, maybe even longer, just until she gets a court date,” Stirling said. “In a worst-case scenario, if she was prosecuted and convicted, she could be looking at up to two years in prison.”
Baxter told Insider, “People just think she’s just some screaming monster when she’s a very soft-spoken young lady. She was only pushed to the edge to respond back after she was afraid and being extorted for money and misled.”
READ MORE: TikToker Tierra Young Allen Jailed in Dubai for Screaming in Public | Video
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