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NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
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nystreetfilms
01/18/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
What generation of iPod was it? I mean this is a viable question... I had a ride yesterday from Vandam street to 139th and Lennox which ran me about 48 bux because of some ass on the Hudson ... I mean, you can get an older iPod these days for around 30 bux on ebay... she might have made out with a deal. Hell, maybe she was just "playing dumb" and this was all a ploy to get the cabbie to demand the iPod. The FOOL! Can you believe this guy fell for it... poor cabbie I say! This woman must be stopped!!! Think of all the tourist terrorism she is committing in other cities around the world under the guise of a naive unravelled tourist pawning of cheap outdated technology for viable expensive services...

Its shit like this that makes me take the subway... I swear.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/18/09

@nystreetfilms: I should walk around with a pocket full of dead iPods and use them as currency. "Aw man I forgot my wallet. Here, have an iPod!"
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gadjitfreek
01/18/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Words cannot describe how much I hate New York City, that festering cesspool of corruption, crime and filth. I live 60 miles north of it, and I go there as infrequently as humanly possible. That stinking pit is dragging the rest of New York right down into a hole with it. New York City should become its own District and stop sucking the rest of the state dry.

New York Charm, as summed up by Eddie Dean of the Dark Tower series:

"Can you tell me how to get to Lexington and Fourth, or should I just go fuck myself?"
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Kaiser-Machead
01/18/09

@gadjitfreek: You were bitten by a crackhead as a child, weren't you?
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
01/18/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Haha. I'd love to get in this guy's cab. While we're driving I'd start cursing about how my iphone battery just went dead and I'd be holding it up to make sure he gets a good look at it. When we reach our destination I'd fumble around for a minute, then say I forgot my wallet. Naturally he'd demand my iphone as payment, which I would sheepishly hand over to him before hastily exiting the cab. As he drives off with a smirk on his face I would be laughing my ass off for giving him one of these...

[i.gizmodo.com]
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Purple Dave
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
"Can we use Apple products as currency once our money isn't worth the ink used to print it?"

Dunno. Give Zimbabwe a call and see what they have to say on the matter (they reported just printed a 100 trillion dollar bill...which was, at the time, worth roughly $300 USD, and now probably wouldn't be worth more than half that).
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GitEmSteveDave_ My Brute Dojo Code CDIAFIFE
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
I wonder about this. According to the article, they can't get the names of the officers. Funny, you would think the airport would have footage of the arrival and departure areas.

Also, hopefully she bought her music through iTunes, cuz this guy will be SOL listening to her DRM music.
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sxr7171
01/17/09

@EducatedFlea_GitEmSteveDave: Wow, wonderful argument for buying stupid DRM lossy garbage with my hard earned money. Just in case my iPod gets stolen the thief can't listen to my stupid lossy DRM garbage.

Like anyone in their right would give a flying fck about the music on the device, especially the kind of crap listened to by 20 year old girls.

Keep the DRM power alive.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
01/18/09

@sxr7171: It wasn't an argument he posited, but merely a statement.

On the other hand it could be argued that you're a bit of a d-bag based on your statement though....
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davehimself
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
This obviously did not happen. Certainly not how the girl is claiming. The only real crime I can possibly detect in this imagined story is horrendous parenting. To raise an utterly naive and incapable 20 yr old and then allow her to travel alone? That is criminal.

Everyone knows NYC cab drivers are quite famous for returning bags of cash and valuable items. Oh and getting shot by assholes.

All to earn a meager living.

Your daughter lost her iPod and is embarrassed to tell you. Buy her a new one.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/18/09

@Rajesh Sampathkumar: If you're a native NY'er, taking the train is pretty much a quick and simple way to travel about (though, as previous respondent says, it's frakkin' cold out). To tourists and such, simply getting into a cab and saying where you need to go is a lot faster, even if more expensive. I'm assuming that this was just one of those trips that wasn't going to be taken often, so cost is not as much of an issue.
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Rand
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
OK everyone go read the story. Dan obviously didn't. The Port Authority of New York told the girl she would have to give the cab driver something of equal or greater value or THEY would have to book her, NOT the cab driver. So she was NOT threatened by the cab driver, she was threatened by the Port Authority. Feel sad for the girl but....she needs to wise up. Always carry some cash when traveling. Cash is King.
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Jim Topoleski
01/17/09

@Rand: I highly highly doubt they said that, as they where in violation of state law even letting the jackass out without a functioning card reader.

Im sure the cabbie called his buddy and pretended to be the authority. For one they have no legal right to book anyone, only cops can and the cops would have told the cabbie to wait while she got money, I have seen them do it before in NYC.

And if the authority DID say that, and its 100% true, she has a nasty lawsuit she needs to press, as its the port authorities OWN laws that state the cabbie was in violation.
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winexprt
01/17/09

@Jim Topoleski:

I don't think you realize that here in nYC, the Port Authority has their OWN police force. Which, by the way, have the LEGAL RIGHT to "book" (a.k.a. arrest) you.

I'm born & raised right here in nYc, and as much as I loathe most cabbies, I hold Port Authority cops in even higher distain. :-)
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Kaiser-Machead
01/18/09

@Rand: Bullshit. If she was wise, she'd still have her iPod. It's simply not legal to force people to just hand over personal property because the cabbie and his dispatch failed to have faulty equipment dealt with before going out on duty. She could've been escorted to an ATM.
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michaelwiggins
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Some greasy cab driver will have my iPod when he pries it from my cold dead hands.

Which might not be hard, because I've heard cabbies generally carry a firearm.
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frigg
01/17/09

@michaelwiggins: Not to be one of those internet forensic pathology nazis or anything, but your hands would still be warm if he pried it from them shortly after firing his weapon. :P
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Kaiser-Machead
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Boy, welcome to thunderdome
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OMG! Ponies!
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Rules to live by:

If someone threatens to call the cops unless you give into their demands, take them up on the offer.

I had an incident last week where a woman and her husband got pissed off at me because I yelled some choice expletives at the woman as she blew through a stop sign and almost ran me over. The husband - in his sixties - proceeded to yell at me, hoping to frighten me (he was about a foot taller than me). When that didn't work, the wife threatened to call the police on me. I smiled, blew her a kiss and said "By all means. Please, call the police." The husband then yelled racist comments at me for about a minute before I laughed in his face and walked off.
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GitEmSteveDave_ My Brute Dojo Code CDIAFIFE
01/17/09

@OMG! Ponies!: This anti-Hobbit sentiment is exactly why I moved out of PA.
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GitEmSteveDave_ My Brute Dojo Code CDIAFIFE
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
That explains the BOLO I heard for Korban Dallas.
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simplegreen
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
i sent in a similar event happening to me. Just didn't involve an ipod. Guess my story wasn't good enough.
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frigg
01/17/09

@simplegreen: Don't feel bad. I had a similar thing happen to me as well. The fare was $8 and I asked the driver if he had change of a $20. He didn't, so I paid him with a $10 bill instead. Long story short, he gave me back $2, and I tipped him $1.

Of course, there wasn't an iPod or a plane landing in the Hudson or anything. But even so, you'd be surprised at how many people dismiss it as just another one of those "that's New York for ya" stories whenever I tell it.
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jackhandy
01/17/09

@frigg: what.
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frigg
01/17/09

@jackhandy: @ThisIsSharksTerriroty: hehe. I'm just being an idiot, waiting for dinner to be ready. :P
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Andrew Wingert
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Read the article again.

"...the 20-year-old tourist...her..." Read as "this just above teenage female had no idea what was going on or what the numbers on the cab meant"
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Tamar Weinberg
01/17/09

@Andrew Wingert: Except that's an unfair judgment call. I don't know why Dan (the writer of this post) didn't actually say so, but she *did* get the cab number. See the story Giz linked to on Elliott.org for the full story.
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superhappyfuntime
01/17/09

In reply to NYC Cabbie Demands iPod as Payment, Remains at Large
Why didn't she get the cab number? It's written on the sides, the top, the middle divider inside the cab. His license is also displayed up front for the passanger to see.

I know she was frightened, and I know what he did was illegal, but come on, she could have gotten her iPod back!
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Tamar Weinberg
01/17/09

@latterman: According to the story Gizmodo linked to (elliott.org), she *did* get the number.

The fully story is here:

[www.elliott.org]
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