Anthony Cox, a resident of the Town of Elon, lost his car this weekend after his car bust into fire after a technical malfunction.
After finishing an Uber shift in Durham, Cox arrived to his Elon home at around 5:30 a.m. early Sunday morning. He went inside his home to walk his dog before the passenger side of the vehicle started to smoke eventually bursting into flames.
"I was depressed, I was truly depressed," Cox said. "I worked hard for this and this is my moneymaker because basically everything I make through Uber pays my way through college."
Cox is currently earning his M.B.A. online through Colorado Technical University and spends his day as a school nutritionist in Chapel Hill.
ENN found that there were two open recalls on Cox's 2013 Ford Fusion including one that could potentially cause a fire to start from a cylinder head crack. That recall was issued in March 2017 nearly 16 months before he bought the vehicle from a dealer in Durham.
While it is not confirmed if this was the cause of the fire, Cox said he was notified recently of a recall pertaining to his transmission.
Cox said Uber did not notify him of any outstanding recalls and says they are lucky that no one was in the car when it caught on fire.
We reached out to Uber for comment, and they have yet to return our email.
In the meantime, Cox is trying raise money for a new car through this GoFundMe page.