Anatomy of a taxi robbery

[silverbullet]

My mate got a BOLT job to pick up from Tir Connell apartments on Thomas Davis Street West going to Dame St.

He said a message came from the punter saying"'I'm on my way".

A few minutes later three people came out. An old lady with a traveller accent, and two blokes who may or may have been ethnic, he couldn't be sure.

First, she asks him if he could break a twenty euro note for two tens - which he did.

[This is where it got suspect].

She says in an almost rehearsed voice "Here's ten towards the fare"

No Ma, says one of the blokes I'll use me card.

Off they go down Emmet Road.

At Mount Brown service station one of the blokes pipes up that he wants smokes from the garage.

He goes up to the kiosk, and a a while comes back saying to my mate that his card was declined and would he have a fiver towards the smokes which he could add on to the final fare. He did.

As they went along Thomas Street the bloke in the front seat said he wanted to pick up his sister before heading to Dame St.

He got out and walked a few feet in front of the car then came back around to the drivers' window as if he'd forgotten something.

Then he pulled open the driver's door and grabbed the driver's wallet which was supposedly out of the way in the door pocket, along with the coin holder.

My mate couldn't release his seatbelt quick enough, and even though he was grabbing at the thief's arm causing your man to drop the wallet he couldn't undo the belt until it was too late.

The guy in the back seat didn't do a thing, just doing a runner with his mate through the side entrance of Oliver Bond Flats on Bridgefoot Street.



He was down €120 in notes, and about €40 in coins plus all his bank cards, Taxi I.D. driver's licence, etc.

Now I want you all to tell me what went wrong, and what he should do in the future. Remember this guy is a Grandad.

[Octavia1]

Me first taut .....don't carry credit cards in yur wallet....perhaps have yur " taxi wallet" as separate to yur wallet ya use wen yur not workin ....second taut is ....don't pick up off street ....whilst this taut is debatable for a number of reasons at the end of the day yu have to weigh up the cost of app work against the risk of street work ....
To meself the app % is an  insurance cost .... this is why I'll reiterate that the nta or government bodies or watever or whoever is involved.....shud provide a national taxi app to
Provide security and a safe working environment for taxi drivers and customers that wud exclude the bad actors ( cunts) from our work place ..... indeed I wud argue that the government bodies have a legal obligation to protect taxi drivers from the menace of the  criminally minded ....the affect of the implementation of a kuc ( know yur customer) link wud render such situations non existent.....
Wit regard to those who believe working wit regulators wud have negative impacts regarding declarations of income and tax implications...,I wud argue that they all ready exit under eec laws and that the digital age is already opon us .....an in order to move forward for our benifit....we need to embrace change and promote regulation....
On the other hand we need to be alert to bribery,  corruption and influence from multinationals ie uber , bolt, freenow who are obviously influencing regularity bodies with  under the table payments.....

[silverbullet]

Me first taut .....don't carry credit cards in yur wallet....perhaps have yur " taxi wallet" as separate to yur wallet ya use wen yur not workin ....second taut is ....don't pick up off street ....whilst this taut is debatable for a number of reasons at the end of the day yu have to weigh up the cost of app work against the risk of street work ....
To meself the app % is an  insurance cost .... this is why I'll reiterate that the nta or government bodies or watever or whoever is involved.....shud provide a national taxi app to
Provide security and a safe working environment for taxi drivers and customers that wud exclude the bad actors ( cunts) from our work place ..... indeed I wud argue that the government bodies have a legal obligation to protect taxi drivers from the menace of the  criminally minded ....the affect of the implementation of a kuc ( know yur customer) link wud render such situations non existent.....
Wit regard to those who believe working wit regulators wud have negative impacts regarding declarations of income and tax implications...,I wud argue that they all ready exit under eec laws and that the digital age is already opon us .....an in order to move forward for our benifit....we need to embrace change and promote regulation....
On the other hand we need to be alert to bribery,  corruption and influence from multinationals ie uber , bolt, freenow who are obviously influencing regularity bodies with  under the table payments.....

All good advice.

My first thought was "I thought apps were safe". Next thought, This is a well-rehearsed routine involving the elderly traveller woman. She got the driver to reveal where he kept his belongings. The two "sons" pretended they had a card.

She can plead ignorance saying she only asked for the change to pay her son's taxi fare, which he refused.

BOLT hasn't come back to my mate with suggestions about how flawed their system is.

Skobies have migrated to BOLT because FN and UBER require card-related IDs.

Stopping at the garage did allow the CCTV to catch the guy on camera. Whether the Gardaí does a follow-up is another matter.

[mercenary for hire]

I hope this makes sense but I got a Bolt job from that street with a girls name on it but some scrawny little Irish lad came out from nowhere and got in the car.He was very talkative trying to hint he was some sort of drug dealer and was smelling badly of weed.In the end we went to Montague street off Camden street where he met someone but disappeared then reappeard again but when I moved the car to see him better he was nowhere to be seen so I just fecked off.Cost me 25 but I was already busy so just wrote it off and forgot about it.

He may well have been trying to set me up on the return journey but I just cut my losses and moved on to the next job.I have a vague recollection of him asking me for money for some reason as he forgot his wallet.Deffo a dub wearing a grey trackie with a shite haircut.Could have been one of the above guys in Silvers post.

This was 2pm on a Sunday about a year ago.

[markmiwurdz]

Avoid Bolt cash jobs like the plague (and FN)

[Octavia1]

If ya got kniefed an dead .....wud yur mot  be entitled get compensation off the app cause it was ther fault they put yu in harms way wit filth M,lawd ?

[watty]

Firstly, commiserations to your friend.  But it can happen to any one of us and I guess we should just accept that once in a blue moon, we're gonna get stung.  I've been caught a few times over the years and the fukkers seem to know when you're tired or end of shift and that's when they strike.

Re money...
I have €50 (3 x €10, 4 x €5) in one pocket as my working money and another €50 in notes in another pocket in case I get a fifty.  I wait until they're out of the car until I put away their money.  I hide my wallet and would only pull it out if there was nobody about.  I also don't wear a watch or any jewellery but that's probably overkill - just a habit I got into at the start.

I don't use a coin holder.  I've never needed that many coins in a shift.  Generally, I would say I've about €30 in €1/€2/50c coins in one pocket and sharpnel in the other pocket.


Re breaking the €20 and 'borrowing' a fiver for smokes.  Hindsight is easy but maybe learn to say no and stick to it.  Stay you'll sort everything out in Dame St when you're stopped and you'll stop at the 24hr Spar shop on Dame St.  Easier said than done though when you're on your own and surrounded by 3 scumbags.

On a positive note, there's English rubgy fans in town tomorrow.  He could recoup some of his losses with, err, creative route-planning with the English 

[MK]

Horrific to have to go through that. He got caught badly nothing much he could do. In hindsight Bolt cash jobs are always suspect, stick to card payments with apps, and with street jobs you normally tend to be more alert if you accidentally pick nut cases.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shallow Hal]

I requested Bolt to stop sending me cash jobs a good while back....an awful lot of skobies using it particularly around Ballymun at that time..with FN i usually switch to app payment only in the morning depending on which area I'm working,
I had my wallet emptied in Tallaght(Blessington Rd) by two dirt knackers...didn't take my cards but got my drivers licence(old type)....I too used to keep my wallet in the door pocket...they(she) didn't bother with the coin holder...fortunately NDLS were great and got my new card licence out to me rapid as I was going on hols a week later and needed it for the car hire,
I'm not saying it couldn't happen but I find daytime passengers a different animal altogether and I tend to cruise by anyone I don't like the look of...couldn't give a shite anymore!!

[silverbullet]

It's probably less likely to happen when it's busy. Would you do a cash App job in Inchicore at 02.00? would you Gogarty!!

Tir Connell apartments...never. And those flats beside the Mercy school? Nah!

Another thing he said: The robber has a lump on the side of his head, like a bit of bad plastic surgery [thumb shaped] over his left ear, highlighted by a shite fade haircut.

[markmiwurdz]

I requested Bolt to stop sending me cash jobs a good while back....an awful lot of skobies using it particularly around Ballymun at that time..with FN i usually switch to app payment only in the morning depending on which area I'm working,
I had my wallet emptied in Tallaght(Blessington Rd) by two dirt knackers...didn't take my cards but got my drivers licence(old type)....I too used to keep my wallet in the door pocket...they(she) didn't bother with the coin holder...fortunately NDLS were great and got my new card licence out to me rapid as I was going on hols a week later and needed it for the car hire,
I'm not saying it couldn't happen but I find daytime passengers a different animal altogether and I tend to cruise by anyone I don't like the look of...couldn't give a shite anymore!!

And never ever give out to yourself later on  for passing a fare because you didn't like the look of it...your spidey senses are normally right.

[Shallow Hal]

I requested Bolt to stop sending me cash jobs a good while back....an awful lot of skobies using it particularly around Ballymun at that time..with FN i usually switch to app payment only in the morning depending on which area I'm working,
I had my wallet emptied in Tallaght(Blessington Rd) by two dirt knackers...didn't take my cards but got my drivers licence(old type)....I too used to keep my wallet in the door pocket...they(she) didn't bother with the coin holder...fortunately NDLS were great and got my new card licence out to me rapid as I was going on hols a week later and needed it for the car hire,
I'm not saying it couldn't happen but I find daytime passengers a different animal altogether and I tend to cruise by anyone I don't like the look of...couldn't give a shite anymore!!

And never ever give out to yourself later on  for passing a fare because you didn't like the look of it...your spidey senses are normally right.

Absolutely Marky....as soon as I drive past someone they're forgotten about immediately...and I couldn't really give a bollox anymore!!

[Rat Catcher]

I don't think I know any driver who hasn't had a bad experience with travellers. Bullying and thieving is all part of their culture, Boss.

Hardly worth following up. Travellers have special exemptions from criminal law penalties. I think they have to accumulate 5,437 convictions before getting a small fine and a further 26,738 convictions before a custodial sentence is considered.

In any event, ifn the old man enjoys a challenge (or pissing into the wind) he could ask the app firm to liaise with An Garda Siochana and point the Gardai towards any CCTV footage. I know of men who have been robbed on Free Now jobs and Free Now have refused to ban the perpetrators from their platform, merely advising the individual drivers to block them on their own apps.

Maybe he could also have a chat with the Traveller woman Senator that does be on the wireless every now and again, I'm sure the erm will know her name/email...

[silverbullet]

I don't think I know any driver who hasn't had a bad experience with travellers. Bullying and thieving is all part of their culture, Boss.

Hardly worth following up. Travellers have special exemptions from criminal law penalties. I think they have to accumulate 5,437 convictions before getting a small fine and a further 26,738 convictions before a custodial sentence is considered.

In any event, ifn the old man enjoys a challenge (or pissing into the wind) he could ask the app firm to liaise with An Garda Siochana and point the Gardai towards any CCTV footage. I know of men who have been robbed on Free Now jobs and Free Now have refused to ban the perpetrators from their platform, merely advising the individual drivers to block them on their own apps.

Maybe he could also have a chat with the Traveller woman Senator that does be on the wireless every now and again, I'm sure the erm will know her name/email...

Winnie Keenan IIRC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcsJVYjCT5U