I have been driving for about 2 years and in that time I have only had 3 that I would never want in my taxi again. I am still nice and receptful of them in my cab, they are just not nice and receptful.
I picked up a beautifully dresses couple on Columbus/Broadway and they wanted to go to Union/Polk. I complimented the lady on her beautiful dress and she seemed to enjoy it. The guy just dismissed me. Wonderful. I started driving down Columbus and missed going down the first street I could turn around. I don’t know what I was thinking at that moment. I went down to turn right on Washington and before I could the guy in the back starts yelling, “where are you going? We are going the wrong way.” So I said, I am sorry, I missed the turn on Pacific. We get to about the same location as where I picked them up at but on Kearny the guy says “You are not going to charge us the $7.40 from this ride, right?” I said a little sarcastic “sure”. I took them to their destination without any further problems. I stopped and said have “a good night”, they started to get out of the taxi and he tried to give me money, I said, “thank you but it is okay. Have a good night”. He said he needed to pay but I said “Have a great night” and they finally got out but the guy threw, a whopping $5 at me through the window. After I started to pull away I said loudly but not too loudly “I don’t want your bad karma money” I gave the $5 to a homeless man to make me feel better. And it did! The ride would have cost him an extra $2.00.
Stopped for a guy on Castro/18th and he asked to go to 19th/Guerrero, so it wasn’t a big ride but we talked all the way, it was an enjoyable conversation. We get to his destination and he says turn left and go a little bit. I said, please tell me when, and he kept saying go, go forward. I kept driving until I get to Harrison and tell him I cannot go any farther. He then says “You took me too far!” so I turned around and drove him back to 19th/Guerrero and told him this was his stop. He said this isn’t where I live. I said, this is where you need to get out of the taxi. He tried to pay but I just wanted him out. Even as he was leaving my taxi, he kept saying he didn’t live here.
The last man I picked up was on Castro/Market, I really knew I shouldn’t have picked him up by the way he was acting before I stop for him. You never know about people so I picked him up anyway. As soon as he got into my taxi he was concerned with my backpack attached out of the way in the trunk of my taxi. I let him know it was mine and it was fine. He calmed down for a few minutes and then he again started obsessing about my backpack. I told him again that the backpack was mine and I turned the corner so I could get out of the traffic. At this time I was getting a little uncomfortable so I asked him to leave my taxi. He said, “but I can pay, I just want to get to…” He tried to give me a credit card but I didn’t want it. I just wanted him out of my taxi. He didn’t want to leave, he wanted to a ride. I let him know I was feeling uncomfortable and I needed him to leave my taxi. He still didn’t want to leave, I told him I was going to call the police if he didn’t leave. He finally opened the door but wouldn’t really leave. He kept saying, I will pay you, I just need to get to… At this time I started calling emergency. They picked up and I started explaining what was happening to me. The guy finally left my taxi and shut the door. I pulled away quickly and thanked the emergency people. They asked me if I was okay and safe. I said I was fine and thank you. After a few minutes of driving away, I stopped to take a breather. Maybe he didn’t mean anything but I was feeling really nervous. Better safe than sorry.
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