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Early Addition
In the latest livery cab nightmare, a tipster points us to an incident that occurred on March 12th, when a woman used a car service to get home at night.
Last night [name redacted] took Metro Car service home. At our house the driver followed her to our door and groped/molested her. She fought him off and he left. I called Metro Line to let them know what happened and try get a name of the driver. They denied everything, basically told me to f*ck off and make a police report, and hung up on me.The victim is okay, if a bit shaken up. And MetroLine has posted a statement about the incident on its own website, explaining it was not one of their drivers. They also have some tips for checking the legitimacy of livery cabs:So I called the cops (who were absolutely amazing actually...they showed up to our house with 3 cars in about 2 minutes) and they took her to the MetroLine HQ and made a report.
We here at Metroline Car Service are concerned with the situation and events that took place this March 2008 regarding the potential nightmare for a young lady. We also do understand and appreciate everyones concern. We here at metroline car service have over 20 years serving the community and have family men and woman working for us. They make an honest living as well as we do. Now in respect with this horrible situation, it was not one of our drivers from our company that committed that crime.We contacted the NYPD, who said they couldn't tell us anything without a full name and more details. When we got in touch with MetroLine they acted aloof until we pointed out the story was on their very own website, at which point they told us that the driver was not one of their own. The 94th Precinct is currently handling the investigation.An investigation took place where police officers did come to our base and looked thru our records. We did have an order to pick up that same young lady but when the driver got there he did not find anyone. The officer spoke to the driver, looked at the car and even took a picture of the driver and it did not match the young ladys description.
Please realize that there is over 500,000 cabs in NYC. and in the area of williamsburg, greenpoint and bushwick there are over 7 taxi companies which two of them are within 5 blocks from metroline. It is not our fault that any of our customers get in a wrong car that does not belong to Metroline, that is why we have all of our cars with stickers of Metroline on the side of the rear windows and in the rear windsheild including their car number. We also have double checked all of our 200 vehicles and added more stickers to identify our cars from every other car and taxi company.
If you call a car service, make sure the car you get into is identified with a company sticker and/or ask for a card before getting in. Metroline's tips are to look for the "Number posted on the side and rear of the car" and "Check for the name of the cab company as it must be posted on the outside of the vehicle also."
Photo via mikeleeorg's Flickr.
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Does it say anywhere in Metroline's press release why they told the victim to "fuck off"? Is that corporate policy?
You know how all the radio ads for these car services end with "drivers wanted?"
Now we know why.
Their statement makes Strunk & White cry.
Speaking of which, are there any TLC regulations about car services using vehicles registered out of state? Continental Car Service in Park Slope (9th St @ 5th Ave) has been using a number of cars w/ Jersey plates.
I'm going to have to ask my own grandma for ID before she kisses my cheek. Can't trust nobody.
not justifying metroline's shitty customer service response, but they do raise a good point. people really should do alot more to protect themselves before the fact, as in know what car your ass is getting into.
Some dirty driver treated a woman like an object and tried to grope her? Why are they assuming he's a "fake?" Sounds to me like "par for the course," if you will.
Whenever anyone says, "they basically told me..." instead of what they actually told them, I seriously question their credibility.
She probably spoke to a dispatcher (potentially with limited english skills) whose job is to get a name/address and send a cab to that location. Once the dispatcher established that this was the person who never showed up for their cab, I'm not sure what more she would expect from them except the good advice they apparently gave - make a police report.
Of course, the police were more professional. They are trained to reassure victims and collect information about crimes.
"We contacted the NYPD, who said they couldn't tell us anything without a full name and more details. When we got in touch with MetroLine they acted aloof until we pointed out the story was on their very own website, at which point they told us that the driver was not one of their own. The 94th Precinct is currently handling the investigation."
Why contact MetroLine if they had nothing to do with it?
"Why contact MetroLine if they had nothing to do with it? "
Possibly cause the claim that they had nothing to do with it came from MetroLine themselves.. though I don't see how that would change the outcome of the call.
the only answer to this is to vote for john mccain!
(i do not endorse the above statement)
Metroline is full of shit. I was attacked by one of their drivers a year and a half ago coming home from Williamsburg. This pervert tried to molest me on a deserted road between the waterfront and Greenpoint.
I jumped out of the cab, ran and called to police who proceeded to tell me there was nothing they could do and that I need to file a report with the TLC.
Metroline told me to go fuck myself and hung up on me and the TLC didn't do shit even though I had the cab number and driver's description. I didn't take a livery service for a long time after that.
wheeee, it's blame the victim time!!
Love the pic with this article. Need a ride? Call Satan Cab!