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Possibly Fake Livery Cab Driver Attacks in Brooklyn
By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 20, 2008
Modified Mar 20, 2008
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Mar 20, 2008
Modified Mar 20, 2008
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In the latest livery cab nightmare, a tipster points us to an incident that occurred on March 12th, when a woman used a car service to get home at night.
Last night [name redacted] took Metro Car service home. At our house the driver followed her to our door and groped/molested her. She fought him off and he left. I called Metro Line to let them know what happened and try get a name of the driver. They denied everything, basically told me to f*ck off and make a police report, and hung up on me.
So I called the cops (who were absolutely amazing actually...they showed up to our house with 3 cars in about 2 minutes) and they took her to the MetroLine HQ and made a report.
The victim is okay, if a bit shaken up. And MetroLine has posted a statement about the incident on its own website, explaining it was not one of their drivers. They also have some tips for checking the legitimacy of livery cabs:
We here at Metroline Car Service are concerned with the situation and events that took place this March 2008 regarding the potential nightmare for a young lady. We also do understand and appreciate everyones concern. We here at metroline car service have over 20 years serving the community and have family men and woman working for us. They make an honest living as well as we do. Now in respect with this horrible situation, it was not one of our drivers from our company that committed that crime.
An investigation took place where police officers did come to our base and looked thru our records. We did have an order to pick up that same young lady but when the driver got there he did not find anyone. The officer spoke to the driver, looked at the car and even took a picture of the driver and it did not match the young ladys description.
Please realize that there is over 500,000 cabs in NYC. and in the area of williamsburg, greenpoint and bushwick there are over 7 taxi companies which two of them are within 5 blocks from metroline. It is not our fault that any of our customers get in a wrong car that does not belong to Metroline, that is why we have all of our cars with stickers of Metroline on the side of the rear windows and in the rear windsheild including their car number. We also have double checked all of our 200 vehicles and added more stickers to identify our cars from every other car and taxi company.
We contacted the NYPD, who said they couldn't tell us anything without a full name and more details. When we got in touch with MetroLine they acted aloof until we pointed out the story was on their very own website, at which point they told us that the driver was not one of their own. The 94th Precinct is currently handling the investigation.
If you call a car service, make sure the car you get into is identified with a company sticker and/or ask for a card before getting in. Metroline's tips are to look for the "Number posted on the side and rear of the car" and "Check for the name of the cab company as it must be posted on the outside of the vehicle also."
Photo via mikeleeorg's Flickr.
Tagged
attack
brooklyn
car service
livery cab
Metroline
nypd
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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