The Suspicious Taxi Ride

I was required to attend a meeting in our Head Office one day which was located around 30 minutes from my office. I was going to drive myself however one of my colleagues offered to give me a lift as he was required to attend the same meeting. Unfortunately, when the meeting was over, he was required to attend another meeting therefore had to stay back and was unable to give me a lift back to our office, so I was required to take a taxi back. The receptionist called a taxi for me and I was soon on my way back, or so I thought.

The first thing that made me uncomfortable was that the taxi driver kept making calls and answering calls on his mobile phone, not using the hands-free, and he didn’t go the route I would have gone. It felt like he was on his way somewhere else. Whilst on the phone, he also kept saying that he was going to be somewhere in 10 minutes and I knew the trip would take longer than that. In between calls, he made small talk and kept talking about his family back home. He kept saying how much he missed them and how difficult it has been for him to settle in Melbourne. He said he felt lonely and sometimes depressed.

Around 10 minutes later, we were on the Princes Highway and he suddenly turned into a Hungry Jacks carpark and casually said “I will just be a few minutes, my friends are waiting for me”. What was I supposed to say to that? I remember thinking that I needed to get out of this taxi. But then I saw two men waiting at the carpark, leaning against a car. The taxi stopped and the driver started speaking to both men. They were speaking in their language so I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then one of the men gave the driver a thick roll of cash and another one passed him a backpack. The backpack was passed on to him very slowly and was lying flat. He placed the backpack carefully on the passenger seat; I was sitting at the back. I wanted to get out then and there but couldn’t see anyone else around and was worried that the driver and his two friends would do something to me. I thought that maybe I was being paranoid but what if my instincts were right?

So I stayed in and started to think about what I would do. I couldn’t help thinking about what was in the bag. Why did they give him all that cash? Why were they so careful with the bag? Why is the bag lying flat like that? Usually backpacks are placed standing up. I didn’t want to think of the worst but I remember praying that I would see my family again and asking God for direction. They spoke a little more, everything probably took around 5 minutes but it felt very slow, then the driver took off and we were soon back on the highway.

I then saw Chadstone, a shopping centre, up ahead and all of a sudden said “Oh, is that Chadstone up ahead?”
The driver said “Yes, it is”.
“Sorry about this but would it be possible for you to just drop me off at Chadstone?” I asked him, “I actually have a contract for the Myer store manager and he said that I should drop them off if I am in the area, I didn’t realise we were going past”. I prayed that he would turn into the carpark, please God…let him turn into the carpark.
He said “So, you don’t want to go back to the city?”
“No…I should really give him this contract, my manager wants him to sign it as soon as possible”, I told him. He then turned into the carpark and stopped. He then asked if I wanted him to wait for me. I told him that I was unsure how long it would take so it was best that he didn’t wait for me. I offered to pay him the full fare but he only charged me for the short trip. I thanked him and left the taxi with a sigh of relief.

I made my way back to the office on a different taxi, no extra stop-over and the driver made me feel comfortable. I then made a complaint through the taxi’s website. It was an awful experience and whether I was over-reacting or not, I didn’t feel safe and did not have peace of mind whilst I was in that taxi. I never found out what was in the bag or what that stop-over was all about. But I was glad that I was no longer a part of it. I wish we lived in a world where we didn’t have to be threatened by these matters. Unfortunately we have seen too much and know too much to realise that sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry.