CABBIES BEWARE: The first victim (standing at left) relating what had happened to him to his fellow cabbies.
KUCHING: A taxi driver was robbed while another injured in separate incidents within the space of an hour early yesterday morning by the same two men posing as passengers.
The first incident occurred around 5am when two men, who appeared to be in their 20s, approached a 40-something cabbie in front of a hotel near Taman BDC asking to be taken to a medical centre in Mile 3.
As the taxi approached a roundabout in Hui Sing Garden, the men believed to be under the influence of alcohol told the driver to instead send them to a nearby coffee shop.
Knowing that the shop had yet to open for the day, the cabbie who declined to be named said he became suspicious and stopped along the roundabout to question his passengers.
As soon as he stopped his vehicle, however, the man in the front passenger seat pointed a cockspur at him while the one seated in the rear grabbed his neck in a stranglehold to prevent him from escaping.
The duo then relieved him of his mobile phone and about RM30 in cash before fleeing on foot.
Immediately following the incident, the cab driver said he rushed to the Sungai Maong police station to report the incident and requested that the police track down the perpetrators because he felt they could not have gotten very far since they were on foot.
However, he alleged that a personnel on duty told him he would have to wait until 8am ‘at the earliest’ to see an investigation officer, and suggested that he should ‘go home and think first’ before deciding if he wanted to lodge a police report since he was not hurt and only suffered small losses in the incident.
The cabbie said since it was such a hassle for him to have to return at 8am to see an investigation officer, he initially decided not to make a report until hearing from fellow cabbies later that the same two men were believed to have injured one of their own less than an hour after he was robbed.
According to the victim, the second incident took place near the medical centre in Mile 3- the same place where his ‘passengers’ had asked to be sent- when two men approached a second cabbie asking to be sent to a hotel near Taman BDC, which was where they had first approached the former.
The second cabbie who was unaware of the robbery sensed something amiss about his passengers and was about to reject their request when one of them took out a cockspur and demanded for his valuables.
A struggle then ensued between the driver and the armed man, resulting in the former sustaining a cut to his arm.
He then began shouting for help prompting the two men to flee the scene on foot but empty-handed this time round.
Following the two similar incidents, the first cabbie said he was now contemplating making a police report as he was worried the same duo will strike again and victimise other taxi drivers.