Two months ago, I did a fill in case for an elderly couple who lived at the assisted living facility where I worked. It was a three-day live in for the weekend.
On the second evening which was a Saturday the husband decided that he did not want to eat there inside the residential facility dining area as he was bored with their food. So the husband suggested we all go out to eat he, me, and his wife and as he let me choose where to go I preferred an Italian restaurant.
The husband called a usual taxi cab service that he’d previously used on more than one occasion yet cancelled when he found out how much it would cost from the dispatcher for us to go and come back within the distance.
Not so long after the husband hung up the phone, the only driver on duty called bargaining down the price without calling it in to the dispatcher. When he and the husband got down to twenty-five dollars to go and to come back compared to the forty dollars originally required they both came into agreement.
While we were on the road driving through the New Jersey area the cabdriver typed our address destination in the vehicle’s GPS. When we arrived to the restaurant the establishment was no longer there/in business so I suggested one other Italian restaurant that I’d usually order from during my meal breaks.
In between the traveling the cabdriver spoke to someone over his cell phone in his Spanish language and I didn’t trust that at all usually in general it is okay depending on the situation but something about the circumstances did not feel right he didn’t want us to know what he was saying (It could have been a possible set up).
The cabdriver begged and pleaded with me to get back inside the vehicle, following me up to each house then going back into the SUV to meet up with me.
“Please”, he begged and pleaded I made a mistake (referring to punching in the wrong address). I’ll call it in this time”.
“No!” I told him. “I don’t trust you. I am not trying to get you into trouble but I’m going to contact the police to make sure that we’re safe”.
The elderly husband was even yelling, swearing back and forth that we were in the middle of being kidnapped and the wife had thought so too.
The cabdriver was scared and also worried about getting into trouble for trying to make some money on the side without the knowledge of the dispatcher.
Finally a neighbor came and answered the door and I explained to her the situation and she phoned to the police. Another nice neighbor came out and asked me if I needed any help but I told him that I had the situation under control.
A cop arrived to the scene.
He questioned me and the elderly man we both told the same story, but I had to inform to the policeman that I was not taking any chances within this day and age because this was a vulnerable elderly couple as the husband had innocently flaunted his wallet full of money beforehand and so much time had passed and we still had not gotten unto our destination.
The cop asked the cabdriver if he was lost and he claimed that he wasn’t.
The cop suddenly had to respond to another call and had to leave the scene but he had all of our information and I knew that the taxi man wouldn’t dare to try anything suspicious now.
“I want to talk to you”, he told me as he pulled off. “What a funny night”.
He drove us to the restaurant, however, by then the couple did not want to eat they just wanted to head on back home.
When we arrived back at the assisted living facility the cab driver had the nerve to “Rap” to me. “I want to talk to you”, he said again. Do you have anybody back in Queens?”
I played along just to get his number and his name and he sure enough gave it to me (He was such a fool I could have been setting him up for what he may was going to do).
Till this day I still feel in my gut that it had crossed his mind to drive me and the elderly couple to a secluded area so that he could rip them off for whatever money that they had and possibly maybe even had murdered us. I am sure it was contemplated but I stopped it before it could possibly come into fruition.
