I had a frightening experience in a cab on the way home from work last night. My friend and I left work around 4:30am and were going to share a cab since we live in the same neighborhood. We got into a taxi with a guy and told him exactly where both our stops were and how to get there. My friend and I were chatting and I didn't see that he hadn't turned the meter on until we had gone a ways and I noticed that he was driving somewhat aggressively, but didn't say anything, figured he would have us pay what we usually do since we were obviously locals.
He was driving way too fast and missed the turn for my friends street bby several blocks. When we told him this, he was kind of a jerk about it, and threw the car in reverse the whole way back to the turn ("Um, how about just turning around?" I said). When we got to her place, he told us the total fare would be something ridiculously high and we objected to this - we go home by that route all the time and told him how much the metered fare usually is (he said the meter was broken). It wasn't the actual dollar amount, but the fact that he was trying to scam us that pissed me off.
To make a long story short, my friend gave me money for her share and got out while I tried to get him to agree on a price that was fair - he was being weirdly evasive about agreeing on a price and just generally edgy and aggressive. I didn't want to be alone in a car with him, so I told him I was getting out there - had the money in my hand to pay him the usual fare to my friends house. When he saw my hand reaching for the door handle, he grabbed my work bag from me - when I tried to take it back from him, he grabbed me by the hand and wouldn't let go. Scared the piss out of me, I started yellling and pounding on the window with my other hand. When my friend ran back down and opened the door he let go and we ran inside her apartment (I dropped the money in my hand in the car).
He ran up to the door after us, yelling about wanting his money - at that point we only spoke to him through the gated door. I told him I left the money in his cab, but he disagreed and we argued for a while. When I told him I was going to report him, he was suddenly apologetic ("But I already got in trouble with my boss because I wouldn't pick up some black guy" - yeah, that makes me feel so sorry for you, asshole) and said he didn't care about the money. I gave him another $10 just so we would be clear - even though I'd already dropped the money in the cab. I will be reporting him to the taxi bureau and I don't want there to be any misunderstanding - I was not trying to short him his fare, though that will undoubtedly be his defense. But even if he genuinely thought I was trying to run out on the fare (unlikely, since he must have seen the money in my hand), he had no reason to try to hold my belongings hostage and then grab me - he would have been well in his rights to call the police, but you can't assault your customers.
At any rate, it really scared me - he had a tight hold of me and I would have been in a very sorry position if he had driven off at that moment. I'm going to call his cab company today and file a complaint with the taxi bureau - I hope they fire him. People with such violent tendencies should not be in a job where they have women alone with them late at night. We go through life trying to avoid putting ourselves in situations where we're alone with strange men, and yet it's what many of us do every night - makes you think, doesn't it?


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Riley Vaughn 
It's sad, but everything we do has a consequence...this just happens to be his.



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