Woman calls 911 on police...from jail

This is something new, after being arrested for refusing to pay her cab fare she then calls 911.

This dame is from a different world, other wise known as not from the blue planet, she tells the 911 dispatchers I am trapped in a detention facility, and got a charge of making a false 911 report, this on top of not paying her cab fare which got her
theft of labor or services, criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct.

I am not sure about the other charges as we have seen here, you nearly have to kill a cab driver to get more then just probation, this 911 thingy may just stick, story from UPI below.


NAPERVILLE, Ill., March 23 (UPI) -- Police in Illinois said a woman arrested after an altercation with a taxi driver called 911 from jail to say she was "trapped" in the facility.

Cmdr. Mike Anders of the Naperville police said Carly Houston, 29, of Chicago, was arrested early Sunday morning after her taxi driver asked her for specific directions to her intended destination and she allegedly "yelled, screamed, cursed and extended (both) middle fingers at the cab driver and threatened bodily harm" against him, the Naperville (Ill.) Sun reported Tuesday.

The driver pulled over at a BP gas station, where witnesses were "alarmed and disturbed" by the passenger's behavior, Anders said.

Houston was arrested after police arrived and she refused to pay the taxi fare.

However, Anders said Houston incurred further charges at the police station when she used an allowed phone call to dial 911 and report she was "trapped inside the detention facility."

She was charged with misdemeanor charges of making a false 911 report, theft of labor or services, criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct.

The year of the upset at the big dance

This has been a very unusual year for the NCAA Tournament, its been one upset after the other.

In the East regional number 12 Cornell beating number 5 Temple and then number 4 Wisconsin before getting trampled by Kentucky. Number 11 Washington beat number 6 Marquette and New Mexico then beaten by Eastern Regional winner West Virginia.

Number 7 Clemson was another 1st round upset victim losing to Missouri, who
turned around and gave West Virginia a tough game before fading late 69-59.

The East seemed to calm down until last night when the number 1 seed
Kentucky lost to West Virginia 73-66. In a game that the Wildcats
made several runs but poor 3 point shooting through out the game
and lack of clutch foul shooting sealed the deal for Kentucky.

The Midwest region had its upsets and has the 2 lowest ranked teams in the
Great 8 Michigan State and Tennessee, its biggest upset was of number 1 Kansas
by number 9 Northern Iowa in the second round.

The first two rounds where friendly to the favorites in the West, with only
number 13 Murry State winning a squeaker over number 4Vanderbilt 66-65,
the second rounds only upset was Xavier over Pit 89-66.

It was in the Sweet Sixteen when things changed, the number 5 Butler Bulldogs
beat the number 1 seed in the West, Syracuse 63-59 and followed that up
with beating the number 2 seed Kansas State 63-56, and have made it to
the final four.

The South has had only 3 upsets throughout, number 11 Old Dominion in a
close one over Notre Dame 51-50 and the 2 upsets by every one's favorite of the
tournament St Mary's.

St Mary turned the table's on Gonzaga in there conference tourney after getting
beat twice in the regular season, they then faced number 7 Richmond in the
first round of the big dance, the number 10 St Mary's surprised the South's
number 2 seed Villanova.

Today we have four more teams trying to punch there ticket to Indy, the first
game is 5 Michigan v 6 Tennessee and 1 Duke v 3 Baylor.

Buckle your seat belt it should be one heck of a ride, through next weekend.

Hot off the press a teen punch's a cab driver and rob's him of $78

Yeah what else in news another teen punch's a cab driver and rob's him of $78, this happend in a fairly affluent town of Somerset, NJ.

More then likely he was bored out of his head and needed something to do, so he goes off to a nearby motel where he calls a cab, and as they say the rest is history.

I think we all know whats next, a trip to the courthouse with a high priced mouthpiece and the judge says probation, big surprise, and on a on we go, again.

So where does it stop, I am not the violent type but there should be a pay back of some kind, and I am not talking cash here which would come from Mommy and Daddy.

The story is from NJ's Star Ledger, enjoy.

Somerset teen is accused of punching, stealing $78 from cab driver
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP — A Somerset County teenager allegedly punched a cab driver and swiped $78 from him during an early morning attack Monday, according to court papers.

Timothy Lewis, 18, of Arden Street in Franklin Township, was charged with second-degree robbery, according to court papers. Bail was set at $75,000.

The incident occurred at 2:09 a.m., and the driver did not require medical attention, said Capt. Jack Bennett, a spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.

The victim told police that Lewis reached over the front seat and punched him in the face, causing his nose to bleed, according to the affidavit Franklin police Detective Brian Stillwell filed in Superior Court in Somerville.

Uniform patrol officers arrested Lewis after they identified him through known associates, Stillwell wrote. Lewis allegedly told police that he had someone else call Amigo Taxi for a driver to pick him up at the Quality Inn on Easton Avenue, and the driver took him to Phillips Road, where he ultimately reached over and took the money, the affidavit says.
Authorities found the money at Lewis’ residence, court papers say.

The diva gets away with it, again

Miodrag Mejdina the New York City taxi driver assaulted by top supermodel Naomi Campbell, , has said he wont press charges after his run in the with feisty fashion diva.

I wonder how much it cost for him to drop the charges, and yeah I get it he has to pay his bills, but the diva gets away again.

I mean it was not like she just slapped him, she hit him hard enough to cause his head to hit the steering wheel.

And its not like its her first offence, if you read my post of 2 days ago you know she has a violent history.

It seems the super model wants to put this behind her let me translate, hey it over with so lets just forget about it, after all he was only a cab driver and I am a super model.

I think this quote she gave to the Times of India just 13 hours ago says it all, "I've worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I won't be held hostage by my past behaviour. I always try to treat people with respect, she added", sounds like a new spin on an old line of shit.

It's like the old line given by jock's or celebrity's who get caught doing something wrong and the universal line is "I want to put all this behind me", what about the people you have hurt or worse.

I have written about jock's and celebrity's violence against cab drivers on this blog, and its always the same sorry tale, at worst they get a slap on the wrist, and then they give the big press conference where they are so sorry and want to put this behind them.

Take it easy out there and stay safe!

Could hard times be hitting Santa and Mrs Claus?

This story comes from Fairbanks, Alaska where the police have arested a woman from the North Pole for stealing TV's for the second time, and using taxi's as her get away car.

She was last arrested in December, I wonder what holiday is in December, am I the only person with a grin from ear to ear?

The story below is from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Police said a North Pole woman accused in December of stealing televisions and hiring a cabbie as her getaway driver is now accused of trying it again.

The Fairbanks Dail News-Miner reported that a 27-year-old woman was charged with second-degree felony robbery and misdemeanor theft in the Friday incident, which occurred just one week after she posted bail in the similar case last year.

The newspaper said the woman was arrested Friday after police were called to a Fred Meyer store on a report of a woman walking out without paying for a TV and trying to leave in a cab.

Court records said the woman was arrested late last year for going into a Sam's Club on two occasions and allegedly stealing $6,000 worth of televisions, then loading them into a taxi.

More crap done to cab drivers, part 2

Hi Everyone, yeah its been a while since my last post.

Between cab drivers getting robed, beat up and worse, plus the fact finding any funny or positive news story's about cab drivers is next to impossible I just gave up.

I don't know if this is a one time thing, if I can find something on a regular basis but here goes

This is a story about a model named Naomi Campbell, miss Campbell seems to have a problem keeping her hands or what ever is handy from hitting people.

The latest is a NYC cab driver, this despite recently going through an anger management class, I guess it has worked as well as probation has with this Deva.

The news article does not say what started the fight, maybe the drivers outfit matched hers or he had the same color cell phone,but she started beat down on the driver from the back seat, then bailed when the driver pulled to the curb and called 911.

Police are now looking to interview Campbell, I wish them good luck I hope they wear a helmet.

The British runway diva has a violent streak that dates back to at least the late 90s. In 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Toronto court to a 1998 assault on Georgina Galanis, her then assistant. Campbell had allegedly assaulted Galanis with a telephone in a hotel room and threatened to throw her out of a moving Peugeot.

In March 2005, Campbell allegedly slapped assistant Amanda Brack and beat her with a BlackBerry.

Also that year, Italian actress Yvonne Sciò claimed Campbell left her “covered in blood” after an altercation at a Rome hotel, allegedly because Sciò had worn the same dress as Campbell.

In March 2006 in New York City, Campbell was arrested for assaulting another housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted cell phone, resulting in a bloody head that required several stitches.

On October 25 of that year, Campbell was arrested in London on suspicion of assault. Two months later, another former Campbell housekeeper, Gaby Gibson, began a new court case against the model seeking unspecified damages, and accusing her ex-employer of being a “violent super-bigot.”

On January 16, 2007, Campbell pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless assault against her housekeeper Ana Scolavino. She was sentenced to five days community service and ordered to attend two days of an anger management course.

On April 3, 2008, Campbell was arrested inside Heathrow Airport on suspicion of assaulting a police officer after one of her bags had been lost.

Campbell was subsequently banned from flying globally with British Airways by the airline.

She was charged with three counts of assaulting a constable, one count of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, and one count of using threatening, abusive words or behavior towards cabin crew.

Campbell pleaded guilty to four of the six charges against her.

It looks like another round of anger management and more probation for the Deva, one more joke heard from!

GPS

All we hear about these days is the little box on top of the dash board called GPS, some people let it run there life.

I have never liked these things and here is another good reason why.

PORTLAND, Ore. – In a holiday hurry, Jeramie Griffin piled his family into the car and asked his new GPS for the quickest way from his home in the Willamette Valley across the Cascade Range.
It said he could shave 40 minutes off the time of the roundabout route he usually takes to his future in-laws' place.
Following the directions, he and his fiancee headed east on Christmas Eve and into the mountains, turning off a state highway onto local roads and finally getting stuck in the snow.
They had no cell phone service and ran short on formula for their 11-month-old daughter. After taking exploratory hikes, trying to dig out and spending the night in their car, the distraught couple filmed a goodbye video.
Like two other parties of holiday travelers who followed GPS directions smack into Oregon snowbanks, Griffin and family were eventually rescued. But their peril left law enforcement officers and travel advisers perplexed about drivers who occasionally set aside common sense when their GPS systems suggest a shortcut.
"Did everybody just get these for Christmas?" asked Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger, leader of one rescue effort.
In Griffin's case, in fact, the GPS device was a Christmas gift, from his parents. He used it for the first time to plan the trip to Central Oregon.
It's one he'd made many times before, following a route travelers have found reliable since at least the days of the Oregon Trail. But, he said, a shortcut the GPS device suggested was attractive.
"We were in such a hurry to get over there, we programmed it in the driveway and went ahead," he said.
In hindsight, he said, he should have double checked the route against a paper map — and packed extra formula for the baby. "We would be better prepared for the unknown," he said.
The AAA and the National Association for Search and Rescue say they don't sense a surge in trips that go amiss because of a blind reliance on GPS directions, but they hear about them from time to time.
"It's usually about every other month," said Christie Hyde of the national travel association AAA. It's a small number compared with the millions of GPS units in service, she said.
She's heard, she said, of one driver who made a right turn as directed and had to be towed off railroad tracks, and another party led near the edge of a cliff. I am a firm believer in the good ole fashion map and use your brain should handle it.

Buying the door

There is big problem in Miami Beach called buying the door, it is a practice of some cab drivers paying door men for choice rides.

Hummm sounds familiar hotel's like the Hyatt Westshore, and others in and around Tampa, where certain drivers seem to get the better rides, and the dispatchers in jest (we hope) are always telling some drivers that the Hyatt needed donut's sandwiches etc etc etc.

I had a call from the Harbor Island Hotel a while back, the fare was standing outside I asked there name and it matched the name that I was given by dispatch so I loaded there luggage and we about to pull away when the door men came running out, he asked my fare "don't you want the cab I called for you"?

The fare told him we never asked you for a cab and and they called themselves, at that point a cab plus pulled alongside and right after that my fare told me they where going to Orlando with the doorman right there, I smiled at him and said oh now I get your game and left.

So make no mistake people this goes on each and every day and it happens everywhere and anywhere, and with how bad the economy is it is with out question it is worse now then it ever is, so lets watch out and be safe out there everyone.

Something special happend last night

Above is the grapic shown at Yankee Stadium last night after Derek Jeter hit a line drive past the diving first baseman of the Orioles for a single to right field, for his 2722 hit of his star studded career in pin stripes, it put him past Yankee great Lou Gehrig the "iron horse" for most hits by a Yankee.

You can hate the Yankee's all you want, I did growing up in Brooklyn and my co-author does but you have to give this guy his due, he plays hard every day, runs out every routine ground ball and pop up, who does that these days, not many.

Some feel he has a chance to pass 4000 hits and maybe Pete Rose, though I don't think he is the type to "hang on" for a record or the cash for a year or more if he feels it would hurt the team, for those who don't get it he is all about the team, an example of where his head is at, on Wednesday after his third hit of the night which tied him with Gehrig, he was worried all the fuss had showed up the Rays.

I don't know how many more good years he has left in his 35 year old body, and after last season where he failed to hit 300+ for the first time in a while, this year has been a pleasant surprise he is batting 331 and will hit about 20 home runs and 80 RBI's.

All I can add to this is I hope he does pass Rose, but most of all he leaves on his terms and with the dignity he has always brought to the game.

Don't drive near this place

This is Jericho, Arkansas a typical small southern town of 150 people with 7 cops.

Now most people would think 7 cops in a town of 150 is an awful lot of cops, but they are needed to man all the town's speed traps and to keep the peace.

Yes the police of Jericho have many duty's, what you may ask?

Oh like shoot the town's fire chief in front of a judge over one of the many speeding tickets given out hard to believe but true, you can only imagine what they would do to a wise cracking cab driver?

The very best thing about all this is no one can remember which of the 7 cops did the shooting and the only charges D.A. could come up with was a possible misdemeanor for the fire chief for the scuffle that preceded the shot being fired.

If you would like to read the zany story its at: www.boingboing.net/2009/09/04/speed-trap-happy-cop.html

Be sure to read the comments!!

A few things to think about

I just found 3 story's among my Google news alerts that caught my eye, yeah I have not been posting much and some of these are a week old.

It seems the electric cab's-cart's may be on there way back, I think there has been some political arm twisting behind closed door's, because the Public Transportation Commission has rewritten the rule's on these cart's since according the law's they had no jurisdiction with them in the first place.

We may not agree with all this but are stuck with it, I also have to say some drivers dislike of short runs back when things where better may have brought this on.

There has been several cab drivers getting beat up and robbed in Trinidad, I would have thought before starting this blog with my co-writer that all that went on there was sea, sun and fun, but reading the alerts from news outlets from around the world I know violence vs cab drivers is at an epidemic level everywhere.

Patrick Kane and the story that can't seem to go away or stop being a thorn in the side of any cab driver who read about it. The latest I have read (and its several days old) if from his team, the Chicago Black Hawk's just one line from this latest story tells it all "we are so happy this is all over it have been very difficult on Patrick and his family", do I need to say more.

I could have told you...and I did

Three weeks ago I wrote about Patrick Kane the 20 something Chicago hockey player who beat up on the 50 something cab driver, in Buffalo.

I had said we should all feel sorry for Mr Kane as he was about to become a victim of probation, well you can stop singing sad songs for him, his high priced mouth piece got the charges reduced to disorderly conduct, that is an insult.

Wait it gets better, all he has to do is write a letter of apology to the cab driver, no talk about paying for hes medical bill's, his glasses or heaven help us the man's lost wages, all this scum bag could say he was looking to put this all behind him and he looks forward to moving on.

What makes this even crazier is nearly all the comments on Chicago based WGN.com was pro Kane, go figure and lets be safe out there.

Here you go buddy "keep the change"

I just read a story from Myrtle Beach, SC, on tipping cab drivers, it talks about people giving the driver $700 for a $680 ride and telling them to "keep the change".

The writer Linda Sullivan challenges her readers to try giving a 20 cent tip to a waiter or bartender and see the looks you get.

It also talks about the hours a driver spends behind the wheel each day, and how little they end up with for all those hours.

The story is titled "Cab drivers worthy of decent tips" you can read the story at: http://www.thesunnews.com/opinion/story/1033835.html

Reading this reminds me of something that happend about 10 years ago, I had picked someone up in the gate and to him on a ride that was $305 and the guy asked me if I wanted the nickle, after thinking for a second I asked him if it was $ 295 would he want the nickle?

He answered yeah sure, and then thought about it and said no, I told him too late first answer was yeah so I want it also, a tip whats that. =)

All this over 20 cents

The star of the Chicago Blackhawks James Kane was arrested after an incident involving a cab driver in Patrick's home town of Buffalo.

When they reached the destination Kane gave the driver $15.00 for an $13.80, the driver gave him a dollar and told Kane he didn't have the 20 cents, Kanes then took the $15 back, punched the cab driver in the face, grabbed his throat and broke his glasses, seems like a reasonable thing to do after Kane was robed of 20 cents.

He also kept telling the driver "you don't know who you are dealing with" I have read that many times as big time athletes are being arrested, thinking the cops will be impressed, but the cops still arrest them and the courts make a joke about it and give only probation, or a fine that is also a joke, as it is penny's compared to what they make.

Didn't anyone ever explain the theory of tipping to this genius, who as a hockey star makes millions and can't afford to, or won't tip.

The only other explanation like many other athletes of today he is on roids and this was just roid rage.

Maybe we should just feel sorry for the soon to be victim of probation, you really didn't think he would get jail time, did you?

Pitch count what pitch count?

I read a sidebar story about the 15 inning classic Friday night between the Yankee's and the hated Red Sox.

It was about a game played 46 years ago between Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants and Warren Spahn of the then Milwaukee Braves.

It ended when Willie Mays homered of Spahn in the bottom of the 16, both starters pitched the entire game and both had a pitch count over 200 and Marichal was over 220, both pitchers are in the Hall of Fame as is Mays

Warren Spahn won 363 games in 21 years in the big leagues with an era of 3.09 and 2,583 strike outs.

Juan Marichal won 243 games during his 15 years in the majors with an era of 2.88 and 2,303 strike outs.

Willie Mays played for 22 years and was an all star 20 for 20 of those years, he played all but the last year with the Giants in NY and SF, he finished up back in NY with the Mets.

Willie was a life time .302 hitter with 660 home runs and over 3000 hits, all this plus he was a 12 time gold glove winner, he is known for the over the shoulder catch nearly 500 feet from home plate in the 1954 World Series vs the Indians.

Does anyone take responsibility for there own actions?

I just read a story about a Boston cab driver who was suspended from his job because the 6 "adults" he picked up at the airport forgot they had a child with them and left him in the back seat when they got out, the strange thing is I remember this happening in I think Chicago a few years ago.

Should the driver have checked the back seat for sure, but so should have the 6 adult passengers.

I don't know how long the driver will be out of work, or if this is the last straw, its just another way the world sticks to cab drivers, if you want to read the story the link is below, while there read the comments they are about 80% pro driver, that's a surprise.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/20193223/detail.html

From the you've got to be kidding department

Cab drivers form the small town of Bournemouth, England have been getting letters from the local government there, telling them they will be getting tickets for dropping 10 year old severely disabled boy in front of his school.

For the boy to get into school he needs a "frame" (could be what the Brit's call a walker) and two teachers, that is why it is so vital that he be dropped as close to the school as possible, but the city council can't seem to figure that out, all they can see is a cab is stopped in a no stopping zone.

The local authority said the camera car operated a zero-tolerance approach on parking offences in the interests of safety to schoolchildren, I guess the town needs the 70 pound fine (about $120.00) in this difficult economy and that's that.

What kind of bullsh*t is this

I have posted many story's from newspapers around the world on rights that cab drivers have elsewhere that Tampa drivers don't have, this is a switch cab drivers in the Canadian city of Ottawa don't have the right to ask for cash up front.

The taxi union there had asked 2 years ago to change the law and where turned down flat.

Yusef Al Mezel, the president of the union representing Ottawa taxi drivers is looking to reintroducing the law after an Ottawa cab driver was badly beaten last Friday, all they are asking if to be permitted to get cash up front on calls after midnight, sounds reasonable to me.

But not Linda Anderson, manager of bylaw and regulatory services for the City of Ottawa, says she is open to discussing advance payment, but doesn't know if it would have made a difference in this case.

Anderson also notes that the bylaw regulating taxis says that the passenger is required to pay the fare displayed on the meter, "I don't know how people can pay in advance if they don't know what the fare is going to be," she said, she must be a real genius, if she was a man her Mother would call her sunny for sure.

It should be a right of any cab driver everywhere on any out of town call, or a call that gives you that funny feeling in the back of your head or the queasiness in your gut to say, "yeah I want cash up front" and if the customer says he or she won't pay up front, say good bye!!

Be safe out there everyone!!!

Help for cab drivers with the swine flu in Singapore

The government of Singapore and the taxi union's there have combined to help cab drivers there who come down with the H1N1 flu.

The drivers will be subsidised for there medical costs and for lost time do to the swine flu.

As the saying goes don't try this at home, meaning don't wait for this to happen anywhere near
Tampa, anytime soon, but it sure would be nice if someone would do something-anything for the cabby's of the area, but we won't hold our breath.

Tell us something we didn't know

A study commissioned by NYC Councilman Eric Gioia found that 52% of all NY cab drivers have no medical insurance.

I don't know how much of the tax payers ca$h he spent (you really didn't think he or any other politician would spend there own ca$h with all the free stuff around, did you) I would have told him that for free, and I tend to think his number is a bit low.

OK now that Councilman Gioia has this little nugget of information what does he plan to do with it, keep it under his pillow for safe keeping, or is he going start a low cost health care plan for NYC cab drivers.

Maybe its just worse in Tampa but in the nearly 9 years of driving for United I knew no one with
medical insurance.

I drove a cab for over 20 years between Tampa and elsewhere and never had health insurance during that time, it was not untill I went on disability and got Medicare, when I had to go to a DR back then and that was the only time I would ever go, it cost me big bucks.