Dubai authorities are rejecting claims by an American’s woman family that she was arrested for yelling at a rental car employee.
In April, Tierra Young Allen, a 29-year-old truck driver and TikTok influencer from Houston, went on a vacation to Dubai, where she was involved in an accident in a rental car, leading to the car’s impoundment and the seizure of her belongings by the rental car company.
Allen went to retrieve her personal items, including her identification and credit card, from the rental car business, but the agent informed her that she would need to pay an undisclosed fee to get her belongings back.
Allen’s mother, who described her as a soft-spoken woman, said Allen raised her voice in frustration in response to the agent’s aggressiveness, and her emotional outburst resulted in her arrest.
Swearing and rude gestures in public are considered illegal in Dubai. Allen has been detained under a travel ban since her arrest in Dubai two months ago.
However, Dubai police said Allen was arrested for “defaming an employee” and not for yelling in public as her mother claims, according to UAE paper The National.
“The Dubai Police General Command firmly denies allegations made in some stories circulating in the media that an American woman was arrested merely for ‘yelling’ in public,” Dubai Police said to The National in a statement. “The reports present a completely distorted picture of the case.”
Dubai Police said they received a complaint from a car rental company accusing Allen of “slandering and defaming an employee” during a dispute over car rental fees. Allen was questioned and released “pending the resolution of ongoing legal proceedings between her and the car rental office,” according to authorities.
The woman’s mother, Tina Baxter, said Allen’s passport had been confiscated and she is prohibited from leaving Dubai. She believes her daughter was targeted because she is a U.S. citizen.
“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.
Radha Stirling, a UK-based human rights advocate who runs an organization called Detained in Dubai has stepped in to help Allen’s family. She believes that Allen was a victim of a scam.
“I just had three Americans in the past couple of months who said they were in pretty much the same situation,” Stirling told 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.”
Stirling said if Dubai authorities choose to prosecute Allen, it could be four to six months before she gets a court date, and she could face up to two years in prison.
