The Sassy Trucker, a popular influencer on TikTok, has finally left Dubai, where she was held for three months after she allegedly raised her voice at a car rental employee during a dispute.
According to Newsweek, the star, 29-year-old Tierra Allen, was on vacation in Dubai when the incident occurred. During her travel ban, officials from the UAE confiscated her passport and claimed that she was being investigated for “slandering and defaming” the car rental associate.
Now, Allen’s nightmare has come to an end.
On Aug. 8, Radha Stirling, the chief executive of Detained in Dubai, an organization that provides legal help to foreigners abroad, announced that the TikTok influencer had been released.
“Tierra Allen boarded a flight home to the United States today after police lifted her travel ban,” Stirling’s tweet read. “She nearly didn’t make it through airport immigration and thought she would be jailed, but all worked out and Tierra is now relieved her nightmare has come to an end.”
Detained in Dubai helped free the young trucker, who was reportedly facing jail time for the dispute. The TikToker, who documents her life as a full-time truck driver, reportedly paid a fee of $1361 to lift her travel ban so that she could make it back to U.S. soil. She’s also been banned from returning to Dubai.
As she was traveling home, Allen told Newsweek that her experience overseas was “traumatizing.”
Allen’s Mom, Tina Baxter, claimed that the dispute with the employee occurred after Allen and her friend got into a “fender bender” in a rental car.
In July, Tina Baxter, Allen’s mother, claimed that her daughter’s vacation abroad turned disastrous when she and a friend got into a “very minor fender bender” in a rental vehicle. Thankfully, no one was injured, and the car was fully insured, but Dubai police seized the vehicle to conduct a quick investigation.
Allegedly, Allen got into a dispute with an employee at the rental company when she asked to retrieve her belongings from the car. According to Baxter, the employee asked for the young trucker to give money in exchange for her personal items. That’s when the two started arguing. Baxter said the employee became aggressive and began shouting at Allen. Out of fear, the TikTok star allegedly shouted back.
“She dealt with a very aggressive individual, a young man there who was screaming at her,” Baxter told Fox 26 Houston during an interview in July. The upset matriarch said that her daughter was arrested and slammed with a charge for screaming at the employee.
Additionally, the Dubai Police told Newsweek, that they received a complaint from the rental car office, accusing Allen of “slandering and defaming” the employee “amidst a dispute over car rental fees.”
Details surrounding the argument remain unclear.
Laws in Dubai are strict.
Arguing and using profanity in public can result in jail time in the Middle Eastern city. Even holding hands in Dubai is prohibited. So, if you have road rage or love cuddling with your significant other, you may want to steer clear of the UAE.
Stirling told CBS News that she believes Allen was a victim of a rental car extortion scheme. She claimed that the employee tried to intimidate the trucker into paying a load of cash to receive her personal items.
“Rental car agencies are notorious for opening criminal cases against visitors with the promise to drop the case if they are paid off,” she added. “The prevalence of blackmail is damaging to the UAE’s tourism and investment sectors, and Dubai’s government needs to crack down on this abuse of process.”
Even after Allen was arrested and released on bail, she was still not able to retrieve her personal items. Stirling said she also discovered that someone tried to charge fraudulent purchases on her credit cards. It’s unclear if the employee had anything to do with the scam purchases.
Who is the Sassy Trucker?
Allen boasts over 184,000 followers on TikTok, where she documents her day-to-day life as a busy truck driver and her various travels across the U.S. She also shares helpful tips on how to break into the male-dominated industry.
According to her 2021 interview with CNN, Allen drives for 11 hours a day. She isn’t your normal trucker, either. You’ll see the TikTok star pushing her pickup truck in style, whether she’s dolled up in makeup or in a skin-tight bodysuit.
“I like to show that you can still be feminine in a male-dominated field, and a lot of people like to see that,” she told CNN.
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