| | My usual routine while getting ready in the morning is to check out the news stories on Yahoo! before I head out. This one on the front page stuck out in particular for me "Scary Welcome for French Tourists: Police Chase". Turns out this poor unsuspecting family decided to take a ride from a one of those non-licensed cabbies that solict you right at the baggae claim. The police had been tracking this guy and when they tried to stop him from taking these people in his minivan to their destination it broke out into an all out high speed chase. Talk about a rude welcome.
About 2 years when I was flying back from the Caribbean after a hellishly long flight I was approached by one of those non-licensed cabbies at baggage claim at JFK. My original plans were to arrive in NYC at 2pm, check into the W, and pamper myself before heading back to San Diego the following morning. Unfortunately, through a string of bad events I didn't end up getting into NYC until 2am. I was tired, cranky and just wanted to get to the Airport Holiday Inn to shower and sleep. I said yes I needed a car before even thinking about it. So this huge Afro-Caribbean dude grabbed my bag and led me outside. Now, I didn't really notice anything was wrong until he lead me past the row of waiting taxi cabs... in fact, he had led me to his mini van in the parking structure. At this point any sane person would have said "hey, this is bullshit I'm taking another cab!" but being that i was tired and have had my share of home business cabbies from the Caribbean I decided to just let him take me to the Holiday Inn, which in theory was only 5 minutes away. After about 10 minutes I notice we're no longer close to the airport and we're about 15 minutes away from Manhattan! Ok now my awake and realizing how retarded I was. My immediate thoughts go to the possibility he's going to drop me off in the ghetto unless I pay him some crazy amount. Or I'm going to end up on the front page of the Daily News "Med Student Slain: Wasn't so Smart Afterall". So i start asking where the heck is he taking me and how long it's going to take. He replies back "the holiday inn... maybe 5-10 minutes more". I have 911 ready on my phone and my thumb is ready at a moments notice to hit the SEND button. Needless to say I end up safely at a Holiday Inn about 10 miles away from my intended one but I vowed never again
So the lesson here is to never accept rides at baggage claim.
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| | Posted 6/27/2009 12:04 PM - 6 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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