A CEO says his ride with the car service Uber this week unexpectedly turned into a high-speed car chase around the Washington, D.C. area, reminiscent of an episode of "Cops."

Ryan Simonetti, CEO of the conference centre company Convene, and two colleagues were planning on taking an Uber car on Tuesday from Washington, D.C. to the company's new offices, located in Virginia.

Uber is a popular car service that allows users to hire drivers through their smartphones.

But instead of being taken to their desired destination, Simonetti and his colleagues were taken on a high-speed 10-minute drive around the D.C.-area against their will.

During the ride, Simonetti tweeted about the incident to catch the attention of Uber.

Simonetti, who later told that he regularly uses Uber, said that before the group got into the car they noticed a D.C. taxi inspector talking to the Uber driver. He now suspects that the inspector was trying to check the driver's documents.

When the group got into the Uber car, the inspector began to follow the group, prompting the Uber driver to take off, driving above the speed limit and telling the group he'd have to run a red light, according to the Washington Post.

Simonetti said the entire experience felt like "an episode of Cops."

Eventually, the taxi inspector managed to block the Uber car, giving the three passengers a chance to scramble out. The Uber driver reportedly drove off, heading the wrong way up a highway exit ramp.

A D.C. Taxicab Commission spokesperson told The Washington Post said there was an incident on Tuesday involving one of the commission's inspectors and an Uber driver. The commission said the inspector noticed the Uber car had a Virginia licence plate, and wanted to make sure that the pickup was arranged through the Uber app, and not through an illegal street hail.

If the car had been hailed off the street, the Uber driver could have had his car impounded and faced a fine, the commission said.

However, before the inspector could check, the Uber driver took off.

On Wednesday, Simonetti issued a statement saying he wanted to put the entire incident behind him and would not be doing anymore media interviews.

"As it has been reported, we experienced an unfortunate and dangerous incident with an Uber driver and we are very grateful that we emerged from this experience safely, but quite shaken," he said.

"The incident is now being investigated by the proper authorities in the District of Columbia, and we have been told the Uber driver involved has been deactivated by the company."

He added that he only tweeted about the incident to Uber because this was the only way to reach the company. "It was not my intention to embarrass or call attention to the company since I am a dedicated Uber user and believe they have a great business model," Simonetti said.

By chance, the incident happened to coincide with an outage of the city's emergency communications system, meaning the taxi inspector couldn't radio for help.

A Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson told CTVNews.ca in an email that the incident was not initially reported to them, but police have since made contact with the "complainant" and will be "following up" on the matter.

Uber did not immediately respond to a CTVNews.ca interview request.