Police, Taxi | The passenger claimed that the taxi driver acted threateningly: – I won’t pay back, and if the police want it, I’m happy to talk to them

This case was updated just before 3pm after the taxi driver involved contacted Østlands-Posten.

– It was about a male passenger who felt threatened to pay for a taxi ride that a woman had previously avoided paying for, says operations manager at the police in the South-East police district, Tommy Bjerkholt Eriksen, to Østlands-Posten early Friday morning.

He referred to an incident recorded in the log after a man had called the police the night before.

Østlands-Posten tried to get in touch with the taxi driver to get his side of the story, but the taxi company could not help us with that. A few hours after the article was published online, the driver comes by and he has a different version. But on some points they agree. The article was updated on Friday at 14:34.

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Locked the doors

First to the passenger’s side of things.

The police were notified of the incident shortly before 11pm on Thursday evening. It was a man who called the police and said that he, together with his girlfriend, had taken a taxi ride which ended in Kongegata in Larvik.

– However, when the two were about to make up and get out of the taxi, the driver locked the door and demanded that the male passenger pay for a previous taxi ride, which the same driver had carried out, says Bjerkholt Eriksen.

This taxi trip is said to have taken place approximately three months ago, and the man is said to have taken the trip together with another woman. This woman then, instead of paying for the trip, is said to have jumped out of the taxi and disappeared. Now the driver knew the man who was with the woman again, and demanded that he pay for the trip on Thursday night, in addition to the trip three months ago.

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Get scared

Bjerkholt Eriksen says that the person in question told them that the two passengers were told that they could not get out of the taxi until they had paid NOK 800 to cover the trip three months ago, and claimed that the driver said that there would be “noise”, if both trips were not paid for.

– The reporter says that he was scared, and that the man chose to give the driver his bank card and to pay for both trips. The driver must have used the card to pay for both trips, and only then did the two passengers get out of the taxi, he says.

– We know the taxi’s license number, and we have recommended that the male driver report the incident, says Bjerkholt Eriksen.

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– Unknown

Østlands-Posten has no more information about the alleged incident than what the operations manager tells us. We do not get information about who the driver is and thus cannot contact him.

Since we do not have the names of those involved, general manager Erik Horn of Vestfold Taxi thinks it is difficult to say anything about the case.

He points out that it is also not 100 per cent certain that it is a car from their company that has taken the aforementioned trip.

– It is impossible to comment without knowing who this is, says Horn, who has also not received any inquiries from either the police or any of the drivers regarding this matter.

Have another version

Then to the taxi driver, who tells Østlands-Posten what he thinks has happened.

He claims that the passenger ran away from the bill a few months ago, and he shows a long series of text messages to support what he says. He has been taking care of the SMS since March. There, the text messages end with the taxi driver finally being asked to contact a lawyer if he wants the money for the trip – because it is no longer the couple’s problem that the bill was not paid.

There are text messages he doesn’t delete right away. At least not after what happened on Thursday.

– I recognized him when he got into my car, even though he tried to hide behind the hood, claims the driver, who says that he told the passenger that he owed him money.

– Then he apologized profusely, and had many excuses for why it had turned out that way. I said either we drive to the police or you have to pay now.

He also claims that it is impossible to lock the doors of the taxi, as the passenger claimed, and says that he always had the opportunity to get out.

After a bit of back and forth, the man paid, but according to the driver, it doesn’t end there.

Have receipts

The driver shows even more text messages, and says that he has been threatened afterwards. According to the driver, the passenger says that he will withdraw the case if he returns the 750 kroner in question. If not, he must bear the consequences, it says on one of the messages the ØP will see.

The driver also says that if the man had told him at the time he did not pay that he had no money, then it would have been different. The fact that the man, on the other hand, just disappeared through a garden and through some bushes last time, and just evaporated while he stood for a long time waiting, is not good, he believes.

– I’m not paying back, and if the police want it, I’m happy to talk to them. I have receipts, everything entered the taxi meter as it should. What he told the police is just a lie, he believes.