Showing posts with label illegal cabs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illegal cabs. Show all posts

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Fake cabbie assaults homeless family

From the Queens Courier:

A man claiming to be a cab driver tried to sexually assault a woman in Elmhurst before attacking her young children who were also in the vehicle, police said.

The 26-year-old victim was picked up with her three children, ages 1, 3 and 5, by the suspect at 207th Street in Manhattan on Sunday, officials said. Stating that he was a cab driver, he agreed to drop them off at 79-00 Queens Blvd., the site of the former Pan American Hotel, which was recently converted into a homeless shelter.

After stopping behind the building at about 2:45 a.m., the driver attempted to sexually assault the victim while her children were still in the car, according to police. When the woman tried to get out of the vehicle, the suspect elbowed the 5-year-old in the head and forcibly removed the 3-year-old from the car before fleeing.



Update 8/29: The perp was apprehended, and is being charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Seizure of bogus cabs up big time

From the NY Post:

The city has seized a record number of bogus cabs hustling for customers at JFK through a new enforcement base that was launched at the airport this fall.

Since the base opened in October, Taxi and Limousine Commission inspectors have seized 530 illegal cabs — more than five times the number taken in the same period last year.

“JFK is an exceptionally active transportation hub,” said Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky. “And for that reason, it is a magnet for illegal for-hire activity.”

In all, 980 illegal cabs have been taken off the streets since July at JFK and La Guardia airports.

A team of plainclothes inspectors from Squad 15 hits the terminals at around 4 a.m., targeting cabbies who prey on business people arriving on red-eye flights.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Illegal cabbies threaten green cabbies

From the NY Post:

Illegal livery drivers see red when they spot green.

The scofflaws are bullying the outer-boroughs’ new green-taxi operators — kicking, smacking and spitting on the apple-colored rides to scare them from what has been their prime turf, legal workers told The Post.

The illicit drivers “have been making violent threats — kicking cars and banging on widows,” said Jenny Ahmed, who runs a green-taxi base in Brooklyn. “They think they’ve been there longer and it’s their turf.”

At least three of Ahmed’s drivers have suffered through car-whackings and threats from angry drivers since the green-taxi program launched in August, she said.

Fights have flared up in front of the Target store on Flatbush Avenue near Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

One green-cab driver was forced to give up a prime parking spot near the Atlantic Avenue Terminal after a black-livery-car operator spat at him, the driver said.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

How to spot an illegal cab


From WPIX:

Fernando Mateo President Of The New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers describes the so-called “epidemic” of the more than 10,000 illegal livery cabs navigating city streets as “unsafe and it’s unacceptable.”

At a Tuesday afternoon news conference in Flatbush, he asked one simple question to the TLC Chairman, “David Yassky why are you not doing your job? That is our question.”

Mateo along with Tony Herbert, President of the National Action Network Brooklyn East Chapter says that on the same week that legal yellow-cab drivers are being targeted in the city, the TLC should additionally zero in on the illegal cabs and their drivers for the safety of the general public. “Protect our rider. Protect the passengers who just want to get home safely,” said Herbert from sidewalk news conference.

The fake livery cars are easy to spot because they sport plates from nearby states where insurance is much cheaper. Another tell tale sign? Their drivers tend to walk away when a PIX 11 news camera is focused on them.