Speaker 1: I've been a taxi driver in the big city for
over fifteen years, specifically Chicago, but I used to live
in Las Vegas and worked as a driver there as well. Recently,
I know a lot of new methods of getting around
have been coming up, like Uber, but this happened to
me years ago before that even existed, or at least
before it was commonly used. For context to those who
aren't familiar, Chicago has cold, nasty winters and the temperatures
dropped to freezing all the time. The taxi service I
worked for wasn't the typical yellow taxi car type job
you used to see all the time. This, at the
time was a more modern type of job where you
use your own car and put a sign on top
whenever you're working so that people know that you're a taxi.
In return, the company takes a portion of your earnings,
but this way you can work whatever shifts you want
and can charge what you feel is necessary. At the time,
this felt like a luxury I never wanted to end,
but it didn't last forever. I never set a schedule
for myself, so I would just go out and drive
whenever I decided on any given day. During the holidays,
I worked more hours, though since more people are out
and about. I didn't have any family nearby at the time,
and I lived alone, so holidays were just like any
other day for me. This unfortunate event took place on
Christmas Eve. I began driving at ten am and was
very pleased with the amount of business I was getting.
There was almost no downtime between customers, and they were
willing to pay more due to how busy it was,
which meant I was making nearly eighty dollars an hour,
which was really good for me. By the time eight
o'clock came, I had been working ten hours but was
still making great money. However, snow started falling. It was
light still, but I figured I still had time before
it got worse. I took a quick stop at a
fast food place to grab a bite to eat, then
headed back out to work as much as possible while
I could. The crowds were dying down, but a lot
of other taxi drivers had gone home as well, which
meant I had less competition. I picked up a small
group from a large road and took them home. They
lived in a relatively low quality neighborhood with very close
together old homes. The group was nice, though, and left
a good tip. As I was pulling away from the
side of the road, though, a man came from behind
a parked car and held his hand out as if
wanting a ride. It was hard to see him through
the snow and darkness, but he had a dark hoodie on,
and as I got closer he almost looked nervous. But honestly,
this wasn't uncommon around here. I pulled up next to
him and he got inside. Where you headn't I asked,
continuing forward again as I rolled down the street for
a few seconds, though I realized he still hadn't answered.
I spoke again, more punctual, this time asking where he
needed me to take him. I looked in the rear
view mirror as I asked, and the man made eye
contact for a second before looking away. Then he spoke, Uh,
just take me here, he said, pulling a small piece
of ripped paper from his hoodie pocket and handing it
to me. On the paper was a poorly written address
on a street I was unfamiliar with. Having driven in
the city for years, I'd at least heard of almost
all the road and street names, so this made me
pretty confused. My initial thought was that it may be
a far drive outside the city, and in that case,
I wasn't sure if I could do it. At an
empty stop sign, I reached over to my rarely used
GPS and typed in the address. Nothing came up. I
started to get nervous, looking back at the paper in
GPS to make sure I typed it in right. Uh, sir,
I don't know where this address is, I said, as
I turned my body to face his Yeah, just pull
over here, he said, in a surprisingly strict tone. I
was pretty sure what was happening, but I remained calm
and pulled over on the side of the road. This
street was pretty much empty, no cars, no people, no lights.
I put the car in park and just sat there
looking forward. The man turned around for a second looking
out the side window, then immediately lunged his body between
the front seats and grabbed my head, pressing a small
gun to it. He was screaming things at me, asking
for my wallet and keys and everything, but I was
in so much shock and all I could focus on
was the pain due to how the man was aggressively
digging the barrel of his gun into my skull. This
only angered the man further, and he continued yelling. As
I tried I do grab my wallet, but I guess
I wasn't fast enough. He pistol whipped me in the
back of the head, making my vision blurry and sending
a rush of pain through my head as if I
suddenly had the worst headache imaginable. Dazed and barely conscious,
I tossed my wallet on the passenger seat. I don't
even know what I did wrong this time, but he
hit me again, worsening everything. I'm assuming the man noticed
my condition though, as he took the opportunity to get
out of the car, but that was the last thing
I remembered. I woke up on the side of the street,
which seemed like just a few minutes after the attack.
I was covered in snow and was freezing. My car
was gone, as well as my wallet, keys, and phone.
My head was killing me and I could barely manage
to walk. Shivering and in pain, I made my way
through the snow covered sidewalks to a nearby gas station
and got help. In short my car was found a
week later further outside the city, abandoned on the side
of the road. Thankfully, I had no lasting injuries, but
getting a new phone, license, bank card, everything was just
a hassle. Without my car, I couldn't work either. The
whole thing was just awful. Not to mention the terror
I felt in the moment, what really bothers me was
how aggressive the guy was for no reason. I mean,
if the guy just asked me for my shit, I
would have given him no trouble. I just don't understand
why it had to go down the way it did.
Clearly his goal wasn't to kill me, so why did
he have to hurt me so badly if I was complying.
Since then, I started working for a larger taxi company
run by the city, where they give you a car
and everything. It makes me feel safer, but I still
find myself getting uneasy around certain people. Luckily I can
choose to not work nights though, and on holiday I
make sure to be much more careful because I found
out the hard way that just because it's Christmas doesn't
mean all the horrible people take the day off too.
I was on the road during a small snowstorm and
had been driving for about eight or nine hours already.
I say small snowstorm because it was much more snow
than a regular snowfall, but not as much as a
typical blizzard you'd probably imagine of a normal snowstorm. I
was delivering a few palettes to a warehouse for the
company I worked for, but I was ahead on time,
so I didn't feel any need to go quickly, especially
not with the snowfall. I was on a dimly lit
highway and had my brights on. When I could see
in the distance of flashing and flickering light. Getting closer,
I realized it was much larger and brighter. It was
a deep red, and that's when I realized it was
a fire. The snow falling down made it too difficult
to tell if it was on the highway or off
to the side, but either way I was gaining on
it fast. I tried to break slowly, but I had
completely misjudged how close I was, so I pressed down harder.
I could feel the back trailer starting to slide behind me,
and I immediately let go of the brakes, causing it
to straighten but jolt back and shake the whole truck.
It was terrifying trying to keep the truck from tipping
over and not slide into the fire. Closing in on it,
though I realized it was off the side of the road,
and while it was a relatively large flame, it seemed
to be centered in a single spot. I was able
to get the truck to stop safely on the side
of the highway. As I leaned over and looked out
the passenger window at the tree line next to the road,
I could barely make out a small car at the
center of the flames. I was in awe at the sight,
never having seen anything like it. I quickly did my
seatbelt and got out to see if anyone was hurt.
Staying a safe distance away, I tried to look around
the scene for anyone. I didn't know how it could
have caught on fire, and the car seemed pretty normal
aside from the burn marks, it kind of looked like
a regular parked car, not damaged or anything from any
sort of crash. Not seeing anyone nearby, though I feared
the worst that some one may be inside the car,
I pulled my phone out and called the police. I
was thankful to have enough service to get a hold
of them, but they were fifteen minutes out, and firefighters
and ambulances were even further out. The more I stood
there in the cold, waiting for the police, looking at
this huge flame coming from what seemed like any other car.
I started wondering if it was intentional. Now I'm no detective,
but it just didn't look like an accident in any way.
My body shook at the thought, and I turned around
to get back my truck. Hey, hold up, A man
called out from beside me, maybe thirty feet away, but
was masked by the falling snow. I looked in that direction,
part starting to race as two men walked up to me.
They were wearing face masks, covering their mouth a nose.
I greeted them and asked if they knew about what
happened here, and they both shook their heads, which was
really odd considering I didn't see or hear them pull
up in any car. There was no way they walked
here in the middle of nowhere on a highway, so
I obviously started getting a really bad feeling in my gut.
I'm gonna get back my truck and get going. Have
a good night, guys, I said, beginning to walk, trying
not to seem afraid. No one of the men said strictly.
I turned back around and in that moment, I faced
the most terrifying thing in my life. The man had
a handgun pointed right at me. I told him I
would comply with whatever he wanted, and then he told
me to move and stand against the trailer. He aggressively
patted me down, taking my wallet and phone, while the
other man robbed whatever he could find in the front
of the truck. I was trying to hold in tears
as I was thinking about my family and how this
might be it for me. I was almost sure that
they had lit that car on fire now, meaning they
likely robbed someone just like me, and I didn't see
anyone else around, so we all know what that probably meant.
After a minute, the second man reapproached us. He put
his hand on the man's shoulder who was holding the gun,
and leaned in, whispering something in his ear. Then, just
like they came, they both rushed into the dark, disappearing
through the thick snow. I was in shock, still standing
against the truck before running inside and locking the doors.
I didn't have my phone or wallet, so I just
stayed and waited for the police to arrise. This whole
thing was a big deal in the area for a while.
Though it happened many years ago. The car was set
on fire by the two men, and unfortunately I was right.
They robbed an old lady who was pulled over, and
burned the car to make sure no evidence of them
was left. They were caught not long after, eventually giving
details on where the body was, but they never gave
an explanation to why they went back to the scene
when they saw me. It could have been to rob me,
just as they had done, but it seemed like a
big risk for little reward. Most of all, I don't
know why they chose to let me live considering what
they had just done to the previous victim. I am grateful, though,
and I hope nobody else has to go through something
like that. My advice is that if you see something,
just stay in your car, lock the doors, and call
the police. Don't go trying to help, because there's always
a chance that it it's going to end up being
you who needs help. I was a normal pizza delivery
driver for Dominoes in high school. I also worked part
time at a Jimmy John's on the weekends, but that
was just a side job anyway. I just wanted to
put that out there so that you know I'm not
just some random guy doing his first delivery. I was
very familiar with making food deliveries, and what happened on
this night was not normal at all. Ninety percent of
the time, I don't take the phone calls. Usually there's
someone in the restaurant that takes the orders and gets
the pizza ready. Then I just run inside, grab it
and go. This time was no different. I just finished
with a previous order and ran inside the shop to
pick up the next order. As I grabbed it, though,
my coworker told me to make sure the guy pays
him full. It was an obvious statement, so the fact
that he felt the need to say that was weird.
I was in a rush because of the snowy roads, though,
so I just said okay. As I walked out, getting
in my car and situating myself, I thought about it
a bit more and then actually wondered why he said that.
I settled on the idea that it was probably just
some upright guy that was trying to get discounts. I
began the drive, and if I remember correctly, it was
just ten minutes away from the shop. I should mention
it was just past ten pm, so the roads were
mostly empty. But as soon as I pulled out of
the parking lot, I noticed a car speeding up behind
me until he got close. Then he eased off and
matched my speed. I couldn't tell what type of car
it was, but it isn't uncommon for people around here
to go crazy fast at night when no one else
is on the roads. That being said, the snow was
falling a good amount, so going fast probably wasn't the
best idea. I kept my speed and just casually drove,
hoping he'd just go around me or turn off somewhere,
but he stayed. It wasn't until we reached a traffic
light that the person pulled into the lane next to mine.
I always just stare ahead at traffic lights so that
I don't make awkward eye contact, but someone started yelling
from the car next to me. I looked over, seeing
a man staring right at me with his window rolled down.
I quickly broke eye contact and looked forward again, but
the guy started yelling again, asking me to roll the
window down. I pretended not to hear him and started
fiddling with the pizza bag next to me, as if
I were searching through it. I kept the traffic lights
in the corner of my eye, though, and as soon
as it turned green, I quickly sped down the road.
The man didn't stop, though, he continued next to me,
driving erratically and swerving all around. His window was still
down and I could see he was constantly trying to
stare at me and get my attention. The man looked angry, though,
so there was no way I was stopping to talk
to this guy. But I was getting really annoyed. I
was even scared, just bothered by this guy. I wanted
to take a side road or something to try and
lose him, but the snowy conditions made me question whether
or not the side roads would be plowed. Yet I
was not in the mood to get stuck in the
snow with this crazy dude, so I just took my
chances and stayed on the main road. Only one to
two minutes away from the house, the guy still beside
me sped up and immediately swerved into my lane in
front of me. I slammed on the brakes, but it
only slowed my car slightly before it began to slide.
Luckily for me, the other guy had the same problem.
His car continued sliding all the way off the road
and into the thick snow. His car had almost completely
turned one hundred eighty degrees too. My adrenaline was making
me shake as I rolled down the road slowly, looking
in my mirrors at the guy's car. I then picked
up some more speed so I could put some distance
between us, though I didn't think he'd be able to
get out of there for a while anyway. I felt
bad for leaving him like that, but he clearly had
bad intentions, and I was not going to stay there
to find out what they were. I pulled him to
the driveway of the customer's home and walked up to
the front door, knocking several times. After a minute of
no answer, I called my boss, who then called back
the number to tell them I was there, still knocking
and ringing the doorbell. My boss called me a minute
later to tell me that he didn't pick up. I
stood there, confused, looking at the lights that were left
on in the house. Then I started to put the
pieces together. I ran back to my car and drove
out of the neighborhood. I took a different route to
the shop, just to make sure I avoided that car
then told my boss what had happened. I believe the
customer was the guy in the car. My boss said
he gave him a bad feeling on the phone, making
him think that he wasn't going to pay. I think
the guy's plan was to follow me out of the shop,
then get me to pull over so he could rob
me either of the pizza, my wallet, or both. It
made sense that the man wasn't at home too, because
he had gotten stuck in the snow. I don't know
for sure. I could just be overthinking all of it,
but my boss agreed with my theory. He said he
would notify the police and give them the guy's number
and address, although he never updated me about it, so
I'm not even sure if he actually did. But as
far as we know, that guy hasn't called the shop
since