Video: Grabby Cabbie Goes Crazy Before He'll Go To Bed-Stuy

In our latest installment of Cabbies Gone Wild, one unhinged hack jumped out of his cab during an irate argument with two Bed-Stuy bound women he picked up on West 44th Street Sunday afternoon. As the video begins, the driver is unintelligibly imploring them to get out of his cab, but the ladies stand their ground, armed with the knowledge that cab drivers are legally required to take fares anywhere in NYC. But the driver, identified by the Post as Paul Efobi, had a foolproof plan: violently lunge at the women in the back seat as they videotape him with a cell phone. [Warning: there's loud shrieking at the beginning.]

The two women, who asked the Post to withhold their last names, say Efobi started to unravel as soon as they revealed their destination. "I kept saying, 'You have to. It's the law,' " they recall. "He kept screaming at us to 'get out, get out,' but we wouldn't. Then he said, 'You're gonna be sorry!' and took off up Sixth Avenue. He was driving erratically, doing the 'gas-and-brake' thing, going in and out of lanes. He was swearing, calling us 'bitches.' He was very angry."

They say he pulled over on 48th and then tried to get them out of the cab by telling them it was "broken." When they wouldn't budge, Efobi became increasingly distressed, and they started videotaping him. As you can see, he didn't care for that either. Finally he convinced a passing cab to take the fare off his hands, but it didn't end there: The passengers made good on their promise to report him to the TLC, which issued a statement saying, "We have the 311 complaint for this unfortunate incident and will investigate it thoroughly and take the appropriate actions."

This is just the latest in a series of psycho cabbie meltdowns over outer-borough fares. In March, one Bushwick resident taped a bitter argument with a cabbie who wouldn't take him over the river, and a week earlier, a cab driver allegedly ran over a group of men rather than take them to the Bronx. And last year a man was injured when a cab driver dragged him as he was halfway in the back seat arguing about going to Brooklyn.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on May 3, 2011 9:31 AM

Comments [rss]

crabbbapple

wow Gothamist, I didn`t know you selectively censor comments you don`t agree with. Have fun talking to yourself!

amso

SC15, would love to have you in my cab and drive you to brooklyn but i hope you know how to swim or float.

Matthew Cummings

It would be nice to see a little compassion for the cabbies. You can't imagine how difficult their job is Consider that almost all cabs are owned by huge taxi fleet companies. The drivers rent their cabs for about $160. for a 12 hour shift and have to pay for gas which means they've got to pull in about $200. before they make a dime for themselves. How about focus our anger on the giant taxi fleet companies and corrupt policies that create this situation.

OfeliaG

even though the cab driver SHOULD take them anywhere, anyone with common sense (and NYC street-savvy) should get out of a cab with a crazy driver, not yell stuff back at him. No offense, but they made the situation much worse by not getting out when he told them to.

Rob T Firefly

It might have been more of a hassle for the victims in the short term, but in the long term their asserting their rights, and the resulting evidence and complaint, will result in this jackass being punished for his actions. If everyone who dealt with this bullshit did the same thing, all cabbies like this would eventually be forced to either adjust their attitude or get off our streets.

hb78

Why are they still in the cab? Shut your screaming beaks and get on the train.

James Bahn

Cabbies aren't really getting over on anyone working 80 hours a week for 50 grand a year. The off duty ie no Brooklyn thing is annoying but the solution is raising the fare so they can make a livable wage. So stop treating taxi drivers like they are your personal slaves.

Rob T Firefly

Can the rest of us with crappy aspects to our job descriptions get away with whining like a baby and assaulting people we'd rather not deal with?

"Defendant is found innocent because he was provably sad at work. Case dismissed!"

69GeorgeWBush69

I can't believe people are defending the way this guy behaved. If you dont like the fare system you can do one of two things: 1) lobby for a change to the fare system. 2) don't be a cabbie.

nicemarmot

I really, truly hate cabbies. I had to file a complaint about one yesterday, and all I was doing was going crosstown. He went nuts and pretty much tried to harm me. WTF is wrong with them? I'm sure being a cabbie is a really tough job, but frankly, too fucking bad. Someone getting in your cab and asking you to take them from Point A to Point B is not an unreasonable request.

69GeorgeWBush69

I have a feeling that the majority of the difficultly of being a cabbie comes from having to share the streets of New York with other cabbies

Peanut_Butter

It's funny how people cite the law in this instance when common sense tells them to do otherwise.
So it also should be lawful for a lone woman to go jogging in Central Park after midnight too.

ktinnyc

"So it also should be lawful for a lone woman to go jogging in Central Park after midnight too." = Shitty analogy.

Peanut_Butter

I'm 100% behind the cabbie on this one. I'm not going to Bed-Stuy either.

Guest

well, if you're the driver...

"fuck. i saw some mean shooting the other night in Bed-Stuy... the guy's eyes got popped, his brain was flying, blood everywhere... he kept screaming until he didn't have a face no more... his arm got torn off, his guts were hanging..."

and keep repeating the shooting part, over and over and less and less coherently each time...

soxinthecity

I once had a cabbie that bitched and moaned all the way to Bay Ridge. When we got there he told me I was required to pay his toll on the way back to the city. I was about to tip him when he told me that. Then I told him that the next time he doesn't want to go to Brooklyn, don't get in the cab line at Penn Station. I thought that was a pretty good tip, but he didn't seem to think so.

petey2

Tell him to take 1 of the 3 free bridges connecting brooklyn and manhattan.

69GeorgeWBush69

Same thing happened to me last year. My GF and I took a cab from the Penn Station line into WBurg and the cabbie was bitching the entire way. He completely refused to go around the block to take us to our front door (we live on a one-way street), so we had to lug our heavy-ass bags for two blocks. I also accidentally tipped him using the credit card pay screen :(

Dead Himmler

I might be a little out of touch with this, because I'm fortunate enough to have a driver, but I feel that cabs can drive where they want to. It is the free market which always works wonders when there is no regulation and left alone.

Perry

I'm under the impression that you're a rich person. All this talk of having a driver, and you think he has a family, and (hypothetically) throwing around 8K to go to Florida, and people not knowing how "business" works pretty much shows your hand. In this case, you're comments are out of touch and moot at best. Most people in "my circle" can't afford a driver, and at times we need cabs. A cabbie's reluctance to take a passenger to a destination within the 5 boroughs goes against rules set by the TLC. Please review the following link for yourself.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/ht...

You are correct in the fact that cabs can drive anywhere they want, if they don't have a fare in the back seat. Once they commit to picking up and driving a passenger, they are obligated to drive that passenger to their destination. If the cab driver doesn't like it, they're in the wrong business. That part about business, I think we can ALL understand.