CBS 2 Exclusive: Woman Says Cabbie Went Into Violent Rage Because She Wasn't Carrying Cash
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- It is a story of violence and violation. A woman has come forward with allegations of a cab driver attack that stretch the bounds of understanding and reason.
"He just went ballistic. He just lost it," the woman said.
Days after the alleged attack, the woman did not want to show her face or reveal her name, CBS 2's Scott Rapoport reported.
The woman is afraid because the man who left her body swollen and covered in bruises is still out there.
She claims that a cab driver beat her up and knocked her unconscious because she wanted to pay for her ride with a credit card instead of cash.
"My jaw is swollen up. I can't open it. There's a ringing in my ear. My eye muscles are swollen and throbbing," she said.
The woman said it started at the corner of Broome and Mulberry streets shortly after midnight Saturday when she and her fiance hailed a cab on their way home.
"We went for two or three blocks," she said. "The cabbie pulled the car over."
She told Rapoport that the driver told her his credit card machine wasn't working and he wanted them to pay in cash. She replied that they didn't have any and offered to go to an ATM.
That's when she said that the cabbie stopped the car at Prince and Elizabeth Street and lost it.
"He's screaming he doesn't trust anyone, he doesn't trust anyone," she said.
The woman said that the cabbie got out, grabbed her fiance by his tie, leaving red marks on his neck, and yanked her out of the car before grabbing her purse and doing the unthinkable.
"He punched me in the face. Square in the face with a fist," she said. "Knocked me off my feet and knocked me out."
Her fiance did not want to appear on camera, but told Rapoport he was stunned.
"He hit my fiance. I would like to crack his head open," he said, "It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced."
The woman said that witnesses at the scene were horrified.
"They were all yelling, 'you can't hit a woman,' 'you just hit a woman,'" she said.
That's when the cabbie took off.
"It's just insane. It could happen to anyone and that's what's so scary," she said.
The woman told CBS 2 that she clearly remembered what the driver looks like and that she will be meeting with police to try to identify him.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission said that drivers are allowed to operate with broken card machines for 48-hours before getting them fixed.
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