Was i robbed?

that guy6

Folks, Not sure if this would be better posted somewhere else. I was out friday night, admittedly well sauced. I got a taxi home. Put hand in pocket and only had a few coins in cash. I went to go in the house to get cash and the taxi man wouldn't let me out. He suggested going to a cash machine.

I was only interested in getting into bed before I got sick. So I suggested I meet him the next day to pay. I was willing to give him my phone as collateral. ( S4) He agreed took the phone.

If I was sober and this made sense I would have taken a picture of his id and sent it to whatsapp/facebook, but I wasn't in a state to think of that. So next morning phone rings out a few times then turned off. I was ridiculously naïve but was this guy not a thundering Pr**k?

Grayson

You were robbed.

Menas

You gave a complete stranger your €400 phone in lieu of, what, a €20 debt?
Naive is one word for it!

keithclancy

Why not check that Find my phone thing.

corner of hells

Send me your bank account details before we continue.

5star02707

alright yeah you were robbed. S4 at the lowest would still be around 300 euros.

mocha please!

This happened a week ago?

Nah I'm sure he just hasn't had a chance to drop by your gaf yet. He's sure to. Any day now.

ThinkProgress

Maybe the battery died?

Custardpi

Do you remember roughly what the guy looked like? I think there's a way of getting location details from a phone, though you might need a specific app installed for that. If you remember what time & where you were picked up from there might be some record of that. Maybe try contacting the Taxi Regulator. Did you just hail him or use an app like Hailo to get the cab?

Peregrine

Try this.

You're a week late looking into this.

kneemos

If you can't trust a taxi driver who can you trust?

Kolido

Out of curiosity,

What is the proper protocol for a Taxi driver when you don't have the fare? They call the cops? Then what?
I mean if you have the money, just not on you at that moment you need to pay.

SEPT 23 1989

you should have demanded he take you to the nearest cop shop

Supergurrier

Maybe dont get so completely ****faced next time.

Zillah

Hahahahahaha

Sorry, but yes, you've probably been robbed. For future reference no one can detain you against your will, that's false imprisonment and he could be arrested for it. He has zero right to prevent you from leaving the car.

salamanca22

Supergurrier wrote: »

Maybe dont get so completely ****faced next time.

Valetta

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

you should have demanded he take you to the nearest cop shop

Why on earth would you do that?

They're not going to pay the fare for you.

arayess

taxi driver has no right to prevent you going into your house for the cash.

you were foolish in the extreme
if anything the drink should have made you more aggro and challenged him to a duel

Zillah

Kolido wrote: »

Out of curiosity,

What is the proper protocol for a Taxi driver when you don't have the fare? They call the cops? Then what?
I mean if you have the money, just not on you at that moment you need to pay.

Under UK law it is only a criminal issue if you deliberately legged it in an attempt to escape paying the fare. If you intend to pay, but cannot pay on the spot due to a good faith mistake on your part, and make reasonable efforts to ensure you will pay - such as giving him your contact details and sending him the money in the next couple of days, that is not a criminal offense and he cannot detain you or do anything like it then and there. If you then do not pay him it would probably just be a civil matter and he could take you to the small claims court.

I would astounded if Irish law wasn't pretty much the same.

No taxi driver is going to be happy about you being unable to pay him immediately but he can't imprison you.

circadian

that guy6 wrote: »

Folks, Not sure if this would be better posted somewhere else. I was out friday night, admittedly well sauced. I got a taxi home. Put hand in pocket and only had a few coins in cash. I went to go in the house to get cash and the taxi man wouldn't let me out. He suggested going to a cash machine.

I was only interested in getting into bed before I got sick. So I suggested I meet him the next day to pay. I was willing to give him my phone as collateral. ( S4) He agreed took the phone.

If I was sober and this made sense I would have taken a picture of his id and sent it to whatsapp/facebook, but I wasn't in a state to think of that. So next morning phone rings out a few times then turned off. I was ridiculously naïve but was this guy not a thundering Pr**k?

So many fails in one post.

anncoates

You're the kind of guy that sends your savings to African princes, aren't you.

BizzyC

If the phone is on your google account and has location switched on, you can google "where's my phone"

Butterface

Next time keep €10 down your socks.. Or leave emergency taxi funds in the house somewhere!

Magico Gonzalez

I would say you were in dire need of a 400 euro life lesson.

Consider it an investment in your future.

Samaris

Yup, you dun derped good there, boy.

I can see why, in your sozzled state, you thought it was a good idea. You were doing your best to show good faith, and turned out the other person had no good faith at all. I might be inclined to think that the taxi-driver was afraid you'd go inside and refuse to come out again, and taxi-drivers do tend to live on narrow margins, so a lost fare hurts. But given he's now nicked your phone, I lean more to that he was trying it on to see what he could get out of you and you fell hard for it.

An expensive lesson, I'm afraid.

NachoBusiness

Taxi drivers are creatures of habit.

If you got the taxi at a particular taxi rank, might be worth checking it out at the same time next week.

That's if you think you'd recognize him that is.

SuperGrover

Why did you have to wait until the next day to get your collateral back when you could have, as originally planned, gone into the house to get the cash and re-emerged mere moments later to pay him and have the phone returned?

JustTheOne

Best con ever by taximen is giving false notes as change to drunk people.

Fortunes to be made.

Paully D

I've a few underwater hairdryers for sale OP. PM me for details.

What a sting.

My mate lost his S4 a few months back and he had no tracking device. He used this method to retrace his phone. Best of luck.

Not robbery unless force or threat of force applied...

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/act/pub/0050/sec0014.html#sec14

Plus if he though you were committing the offence of making off without payment, he could have arrested you himself...

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/act/pub/0050/sec0008.html#sec8

Neither of ye covering yourselves in glory.

The moral really is of course, better to drink drive...