Cabbie stops car to grab alleged conman

Five passengers were left panicking yesterday morning after their taxi driver suddenly stopped the car in the middle of the road in downtown Kingston, 'draped up' a man and threw him into the vehicle.

While poking his captive's belly with a knife, he shouted: "Yuh neva know me did a guh buck yuh?"

The driver said that the man had previously chartered his car and ran away without paying his fare.

"Di bwoy tek me taxi up a UWI and tell me him inna emergency and all borrow me $3,000. Di bwoy tek man money and run," the driver said.

He claimed that the youngster, who appears to be in his early 20s, was wearing a yellow shorts on the day of the incident.

"Yuh see if me did buck him dah day deh, a kill me woulda kill him," the driver said.

A female passenger, who had been high off the gospel music being played in the car, begged for divine intervention.

"You are here moving in our midst," she said, lifting her eyes to the heavens, even as she pleaded with the driver not to hurt the young man.

'Don't damage him'

"Driver, don't damage him, don't do him nothing! Yuh nuh see him humble and come inna the car, driver! Me nuh want nothing happen man! Jesus ... driver memba yuh have children a live fah and yuh mada," she bellowed.

The young man denied conning the driver out of his money and agreed to accompany him to the police station.

"A weh yah talk bout driva? Yuh know me? Mek we go di station! Me ready fi gah the station bredda ... me nuh have no problem. Me just wah know seh me reach a work in time," the stuttering boy uttered.

The driver, determined to get what was owed to him, drove to the City Centre Police Station, with passengers still in the vehicle, but he made a crucial mistake.

While he was collecting fares, the young man made a run for it.

"Me nah go nuh police station," the youngster said, as he ran off into the busy market district.