Maybe its the water in Detroit

Maybe its me, or maybe it is the water in Detroit, how crazy is this, a group of 3 cab drivers take a fare to Washington, DC with no cash up front.

We all have been beat on some rides including some that where not around the corner or across the street, but for 3 people to take someone over 500 miles with no cash up front is well past where I want to go, here are 2 different story's on this fateful trip, sounds like a 3 hour trip a group took a few years ago, something about a professor a movie star, etc.

The first story is from the Detroit Free Press and the second is from MSNBC.


Three Detroit cabbies agreed to drive Anthony Nguyen about 525 miles from Detroit to Washington on Christmas Eve.
Though Nguyen didn't have the $1,600 he said he would pay for the trip up front, he promised to pay the drivers, one of whom agreed to the ride because he'd never been to the nation's capital.
But Nguyen, wanted in Pennsylvania for theft, fraud and forgery, ran off on the trio during a stop early Christmas morning in Maryland and left them without money to get back to the Motor City, they said.
Enter one of Santa's helpers: Officer Mark Gribble. The Montgomery County police veteran who responded to the cabbies' 911 call gave them about $60 from his own pocket to help pay their way back home.
"We take the chance. We got played," said one of the cabbies, a 53-year-old Detroit man who asked not to be identified because he was embarrassed by the misadventure.
The cab driver said he picked up Nguyen at the train station in Detroit. Nguyen said he wanted to go to Washington, where he said he owned a restaurant, and put his luggage in the cab. The driver said Nguyen, whom he suspected had a gambling problem, planned to come back to Detroit and was willing to pay another $300 for the return ride.
The cabbie didn't want to go alone so he called his friend, another cab driver, and asked if he wanted to share the driving duties and split the money. The other driver agreed and his wife, also a cabbie, came along.
When the foursome got to Maryland, they missed their exit and took another one to get straightened around. While one driver used a restroom, another got out to check the tires. That's when Nguyen ran off.
He was later captured and police learned he was wanted in Pennsylvania. The cabbies waited for Nguyen's wife in Kentucky to wire them the money, but it never came, one of the drivers said.
But Gribble helped the group, providing them about $20 from his pocket and another $40 he withdrew from an ATM for their ride home.
Nguyen was charged with being a fugitive from justice by Montgomery County police, spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. He was later picked up by authorities in Pennsylvania on the warrants. Baur said her agency hasn't charged Nguyen with failure to pay the cabbies because it hasn't determined if the theft occurred in Maryland or Detroit.
The one driver said he and his friends should be paid and he acknowledged they should have asked for the money up front. He said it's the first time he hasn't received a fare and he's shuttled riders as far as Minneapolis and Chicago.
Though they didn't get paid and they didn't see Washington, there was a highlight to the trip, the driver said.
"I enjoyed driving up through Pennsylvania, the mountains," he said.


DETROIT - Three Detroit-area cab drivers took a chance on big money, a big trip and a big gambler on Christmas Eve and as fate would have it, they lost.
It was Christmas Eve and a gambler's luck had run out after playing at MGM Grand in Detroit.
The man was going to take the Amtrak Train from Detroit to Washington, but the rails were icy and the trains were canceled.

Meanwhile, cabdriver James Mathenia got a call from his Jamaican cabbie friend, Erroll Paisley, with a proposition. Paisley said a man needed a ride from Detroit to Washington to go see his family and he was willing to pay $1,600 for the trip, and half of that money would be Mathenia's, if he split the driving.
Mathenia told Washington Post writer John Kelly that he gladly agreed to do it. Most cabbies wait for big fares because driving to and from a Laundromat four times a day, at $4 a trip, doesn't add up to much.
Mathenia told the paper that most of the days, he is just happy to make a profit. After leasing the ca b for $75 a day, and putting gas in it, whatever is left at the end of the day is his.
A golden rule exists among the cab community: Make sure you get paid up front for big fares. However, when Mathenia, his wife Sylvia, also a cabdriver, and Paisley piled in a Crown Victoria and went to pick up the gambler, he said he didn't have the money on him.
The gambler assured the drivers he was good for the $1,600 and he owned a restaurant in Washington, and that when they arrived, he would make them a big Christmas meal.
Mathenia decided to take a gamble and give the man a lift anyway. Besides, he figured he had the man's luggage in the trunk for collateral.
So the trio of Detroit cabdrivers and the gambler left Detroit at 6 p.m. They reached the Beltway around 2:30 a.m. Suddenly the gambler started shouting that Mathenia had missed his exit, but Mathenia told the paper he was more worried about his bladder, which was about to burst.
He pulled off on 495 and pulled into a gas station to use the restroom. He said the next thing he knew, he heard his wife and friend yelling20that he had gotten out of the car.
Mathenia chased the gambler, but had to stop and call 911 because he didn't feel well.
The police were there in five minutes. "You don't get that kind of response in Detroit," Mathenia told the Washington Post.
Police were able to catch the gambler, but they are not sure of his real name because he had one ID under the name Anthony T. Nguyen, which matched a 36-year-old man wanted for theft charges in two states.
The man was arrested and faces theft, forgery and fraud charges.
The trio turned the car around. Erroll, worrying that they would be the laughing stock of the cab community, sat quietly until they got home at about 1 a.m. Friday.
Mathenia realized the shortness of breath he experienced while chasing after the gambler was a sign of a heart attack. Mathenia is in the acute wing of the Botsford Hospital awaiting a triple bypass surgery.
The lesson learned: Get your money upfront, Mathenia told the Washington Post. But he added that if he hadn't chased after the gambler, he wouldn't have noticed the symptoms.
Mathenia also said that despite the bout of bad luck, he did learn that there are some Good Samaritans in the world. The Pennsylvania officer who responded to the cab drivers's call realized they were broke, and gave them $22 from his wallet and rallied a few other local cab drivers to give them money to make up for their run-in with an angry Lady Luck on Christmas Eve.