DC Cab Rider

Am I Under Arrest?

Mad Cabbie has noted that I haven't been a good blogger lately, but that's only because I haven't had too many cab rides, or interesting ones at that - ok, except for the hostile woman this morning.

So I'll tell you about a cab ride from several years ago. I was going to Union Station (that's what made me think of it). So got in cab, regular nice cab, nothing unusual about it. We got all the way into Union Station when a police car started flashing its lights and sounding its siren at us. So the driver parked. Since I didn't have any outstanding warrants against me, I paid the driver and opened the door to get out of the cab and onto my train.

Policeman rushes up, SLAMS the door back, almost taking off a finger and barking "Stay inside" to me. Driver hasn't said a thing so far. Being the slightly curious type, and wondering if I'm going to be murdered by a psycho killer before the cop will let me out of the cab, I ask the driver if he knows what's going on.

Not a clue, he says. Minutes go by. And more minutes. My train departure time is getting closer and closer. Finally I roll down the window to stick my head out and mention that I don't want to miss my train. My head is less than 1" out the window when I hear, "Stay inside" yelled back at me. So I roll up the window and stay inside.

In the meantime, two other cop cars have joined our guy. Obviously this is a terrorist of great importance who is only pretending to be a cabbie before he can get his hands on an airplane. "Are you SURE you don't know what this is about?" I ask again. Nope, he says. No idea.

Finally, 20 minutes (YES, 20 MINUTES) later, the policeman comes up to talk to the cabbie (they wouldn't let him out of the car either) and tells him that his license plate matches the plate of someone they're looking for, but that they have figured out that his plate is real and he's ok.

Apparently so am I, because they decide to let me go too - and I sprint like made for my train, which is, of course, 30 minutes late LOL.

At least I got on the train.

posted by DC Cab Rider @ 6:57 PM