Monday September 28, 2015
A Hamilton taxi driver has been left angry and out of work after a trio of teens allegedly held a knife to his throat and robbed him of his maxi taxi.
The alleged group, two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old, also punched the driver in the head before fleeing to Tauranga where they ran.
Hamilton Taxis general manager Andy Collins said the driver was upset and out of work from the incident on a quiet Sunday night.
"It is quite alarming and distressing for our drivers when they hear of incidents like this."
"It is terrible and you thank the lucky stars he wasn't injured, if he was severely affected we would get him some help and assistance."
The cab driver, who would not be named due to fear for his safety, was still visibly shaking when he told Fairfax about the incident. With no insurance he was facing a $3000 repair bill and no van to provide income for two weeks.
"I have never been robbed in my life, I never thought it would happen here."
Originally from Somalia, the driver immigrated as a refugee to New Zealand in 2004. He settled with his family - wife and five children - in Hamilton where he has been driving cabs for the last 10 years.
"Hamilton is not safe. Sometimes you drive around at 11pm you see people running in the street, the street is not the same as it was before. In Hood St on Friday and Saturday there are lines of police."
The driver had been working in central Hood St when he responded to a pick up in Hillcrest about 10pm on September 20.
"It was a quiet night - when I went to the house, at first they were not there, then when I turned around they came out of the house."
He said the three jumped in the back of the van, but he only caught a glimpse of one of the teen's faces.
"I thought that they were students from the university."
The three men directed him to Newstead where they asked to get out.
"I did not have any suspicions about them - they were from a student area - most of the taxis are called in that area."
"When we stopped, they said the mother would come out to pay."
But that didn't happen and instead the driver found the tip of a knife poking into his neck.
"It was scary, but I tried to clam them down."
He managed to hit the panic alarm, sending an urgent message with GPS coordinates to the dispatch centre in Auckland.
The trio began searching through the car, asking about a cellphone and demanding cash before ordering the driver out onto the road.
That's where they punched him, twice in the head, he said.
"I was trying 111 but the woman kept asking me questions, I was asking for help."
While the driver attempted to flag down passing cars, the trio pulled out the GPS locator and in-car cameras and fled in the van.
"They disabled the GPS so it only picked up the last GPS location, that was somewhere in Morrinsville Rd so that's where the other fleet drivers were looking," said Collins.
It was not until an off-duty police officer heading home spotted the driver on the side of the road and offered to help.
After taking off with the man's van, the trio drove over the Kaimai Range where the van was spotted by a police patrol shortly after midnight, Detective Sergeant Craig Rawlinson, of Western Bay of Plenty CIB said.
The patrol gave chase, but the offenders failed to stop and continued at speed onto Cambridge Rd in Tauriko, across the harbour bridge to Maunganui Rd.
"The van was abandoned on State Highway 2, a short distance past ASB Baypark Stadium," Rawlinson said.
One of the teens was chased by police on foot and caught, while the other two were tracked down in nearby Matapihi shortly before midday Monday.
The two 15-year-olds and one 17-year-old were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.
Since in-car camera security systems were introduced by law in 2010, Collins said there had been a reduction in driver assaults.
"There has been a marked reduction in these types of cases, but you are not going to stop the nutcases."