Ripped Off By A Cab Driver!!

I got back to the rental car place, really tired, long drive, having to go to the toilet, hungry, blah blah blah, big suitcase so I decide to take a cab home. Typically I can stand in the middle of the block, not have to go to a corner and a cab will come along. But it was getting dark, getting cold when I see the kind of cab I like (Crown Victoria) coming down the block. The light on the roof that indicates the cab is available wasn't lit, but the driver flashed his lights at me, as the drivers do, to say "I see you, I got you."

I'm thinking that maybe the light really is on or maybe he's off duty as sometimes the off duty cabs will stop if you're going in the same direction. So before I get in the cab, he asks me where I'm going, which is odd, but I get in. He puts the suitcase in the trunk. I know he understood English as, during the ride, he asked me about Good Friday/First Day of Passover. I noticed when I first got in that the meter read $6.50 but after a block or so, he restarted the meter so it was right.

We pull up to my building and the fare is $4.05. I hand him a ten dollar bill and say, "I will give you this, no change, but I ask that you carry my suitcase to the top step of my building." I have done this many times before and the drivers have even said I don't have to tip them that much -- really they do it in 10 seconds where I lug it up each individual step.

He takes my suitcase out of the trunk as I'm getting out and my suitcase is between two parked cars. He's standing there saying he'll "help" me get out. I tell him I don't need help, but please take the suitcase up the steps. I get out of the cab. He hasn't moved, and he points to my suitcase and I say "Yes, please take it up the steps."

There are some cars behind us and I was thinking they couldn't get by. Again, this is very normal, and sometimes the driver will pull the car up 3 or 4 feet which may move the car 3 or 4 inches closer to the curb so the cars can pass. He got in the car, and I swear that's what I thought he was doing.

But he takes off like a shot.

I'm standing there dumbfounded. The bastard ripped me off. I was in such disbelief that I even thought he was going to back up the block and come back to carry my suitcase. When I realized he was long gone, I just started to laugh. It reminded me of some corny movie about the country bumpkin arriving in the big city and getting ripped off first thing. I'm surprised my purse wasn't snatched at the same time to complete the scene.

I sat on my front steps for a while and thought of the hundreds of cab rides I've had. I couldn't remember one instance of a driver ripping me off, or trying to. Drivers have been uniformly kind, generous, waiting for me to get inside the building if it's been late at night. One day when I overslept for a flight and was nervously trying to get to LGA, a driver actually gave me his second cup of coffee. When my ankle was broken and I had a cast, the drivers were so kind and patient and helpful. This guy's behavior made me mad on behalf of the 99.9% of honest drivers. Sure, some of them are curt, don't say thank you for the tip, but at least they are honest.

Of all the guiding principles, I believe in "what goes round comes round" even though I will likely never know what the universe has in store for this guy. Really? For five bucks?