Think being a taxi driver is a boring day job? Think again! These unsuspecting drivers found themselves caught it some heartbreaking and bizarre situations, and all they could do was keep driving. Believe it or not, people jumping into cabs wanting to follow someone happens way more often than expected! Content has been edited for clarity.
He Never Expected What Was In That Limo
“Finally, my time to shine! Okay, so I worked as a taxi driver in San Diego back from 2006 to 2012. I had this sort of event only happen once, but it was something I will never forget. It was a normal August day, and a Padres game was going on. i was parked outside of the stadium, waiting for any passengers. Suddenly, this guy hops into my passenger seat. Normally people get in the backseat, so i knew that something was pretty fishy already. He told me to drive down the road until I got to 7th Avenue. Once we got there, he instructed me to wait there, even though the meter would be running. He didn’t seem to care about the meter. Either way I got paid, so I didn’t really mind. All of a sudden, this stretch limousine passed my taxi, and the guy tells at me to follow it. I thought this had to be a prank or something! I followed the limo for about ten minutes when I realized that the car was merely going around in circles. I explained this to my passenger, and he told me to circle in the opposite direction, even though we had been driving down one-way streets. I told him I couldn’t, but the passenger just yelled at me some more to keep following the limo anyway. This guy was way too aggressive!
After about six more efforts to circle the same route, the limo finally went straight onto the highway, so I naturally followed in pursuit. One we had been driving on the highway, I realized that we were heading for the airport. My passenger shouted at me some more about how I could not let that limo get to the airport. Naturally, I did what any responsible driver would have done. I pulled ahead of the limo and cut them off. My passenger got out of the taxi, and the limo driver also got out, completely surprised at this sneaky ambush. The passenger pushes past the limo driver, opens the door, and takes a child out of the back seat. Turns out that was my passenger’s actual child, who his ex wife had stolen from him! The passenger had received full custody of the kid from the wife, after she was caught physically abusing the poor tyke. My jaw hit the floor of my taxi. He got back into my taxi with this toddler and I drove him to his house. He paid me double whatever the fare was. Believe it or not, we still talk to this day! He is doing pretty well now, and thankfully the kid is too! The entire experience was so bizarre, and I still don’t know why the woman was traveling in a limo of all cars in the first place. Why did they even circle around the same area a ton? That passenger has never told me!”
Nothing Would Get In Her Way
“One time, I was picking up a woman who was clearly having a rough time of it. This was on New Year’s Eve, about two hours to midnight. According to her, the boyfriend she just moved in with was not responding to any of her text messages or calls. When she got in my car, she asked me how fast I could go. It drove a manual 07 Impreza, fine for driving through the city quickly, but not a race car. She said this was the third taxi that she had been in and asked me if I was down to chase a car. The last two drivers said no. Part of me wanted to say no, but I was intrigued, so I ultimately agreed. I also felt like it would be a story I could bring to the party I was going to after I was done driving. There was a lot of traffic due to the holiday. We were driving along with no destination, while she grabbed handfuls of tissues and told me about their relationship. Turns out she had suspected him of cheating even before they moved in together, and she had recently decided to hire a private investigator to find out if her suspicions were right. The PI wasn’t working fast enough, so she decided to do her own investigation, with me as her driver! We’re driving around looking for him near the spots he frequented. She is giving me directions through the city, yelling for me to turn, go faster, slow down, whip u-turns, cut through alleyways, and anything else you could imagine. I am about ready to give up, but then she yelled out that she saw him. I don’t know if it was actually him, but he was walking down the street with a girl on his arm. He hopped into a taxi with the girl. She demanded that I follow them.
We are tailing the taxi, and the driver and occupants are completely oblivious to us. There’s too much traffic to truly chase anything. Eventually, we are on a four lane road at a red light. There are five or six cars between us and the taxi we’ve been following. This woman is yelling at me to pull up next to them, but I’m boxed in. She gets out and starts running for the taxi and almost makes it before the light changes. It was actually really impressive how fast she could run considering she was in some really tall heels and tight pants. I rolled down my windows to try and get her back in the car, but she opened the door of a different taxi and hopped in. I heard her yell at them to follow that taxi. I ended the ride once that happened. I hope she’s single or at least with someone who she doesn’t need to hire a PI or me to investigate!
My next ride that night, I got groped repeatedly for 25 minutes by a wasted woman while her husband and her two friends were in the backseat having a singalong. He invited me into their house to party with them, which I turned down as politely as I could. I then sped off as fast as I could to the party that my girlfriend was hosting, and I recounted to everyone how much of a wild night it had truly been for me.”
Attack Of The Desperate Bachelors
“Oftentimes, I would get passengers hopping in and tell me to follow that cab, without giving me any real destination. But usually that would mean that the passenger was part of a larger group that was too big for one taxi, which isn’t very exciting. One night, I finally go the excitement that I was looking for. I picked up these four guys having a bachelor party, and one of them accidentally left their phone in another taxi. They had been tracking it using another phone for a few hours. It took them forty-five minutes of speeding all over the city, cutting off taxis in the middle of the road, and hopping out of the car to swarm the taxi. That’s what happened here too. We reached the taxi in question at the middle of a red light, and these four grown men jumped out of my car ignoring the rest of the traffic around us, and swarming the unsuspecting driver in front of me to ask about the missing phone. That poor driver must have been completely terrified! Well, the guys finally found the phone. Once we finished the drive, my meter said $60, but they gave me $120. At least I got a really great tip out of it! Hopefully those guys enjoyed the rest of their bachelor party. Usually, being a taxi driver is a pretty thankless job, but there is never a dull moment! I encounter some pretty weird customers more often than you might think!”
A Heartbreaking Backstory
“So a very close friend of mine is a taxi driver, and one day this elderly man rushed inside his taxi and pointed out loud to follow a red Toyota in front of them. The old man never explains why they need to follow the car, but he was adamant. While in the taxi, the old man was frantically trying to dial his phone to call someone, but he kept messing up the numbers. My friend asked him multiple times if they needed to call the police, but the old passenger simply waved him away and pointed out at that red Toyota once again. They drive all over town while following this car, and they ended up in front of this house where the red Toyota had parked. Right as the taxi rolled to a stop, the old man exclaimed, ‘Hold on! I’ll pay!’ while jumping out of the taxi. This elderly lady stepped out of the Toyota, and the man started screaming at her. Apparently he was her husband, and he yelled out at her, ‘WHy did you leave me at the mall?!’
The old woman was waving her hands and screaming back at this man, ‘What are you screaming about, you still made it home!’
She walked in the house like nothing had happened. The old man cam back to the taxi and paid my friend, apologizing about all of this nonsense at the same time. My friend had been concerned that he had been trailing a burglar or something, but it turned out that the old woman just completely forgot her husband at the mall. It was sort of funny, but also very tragic at the same time. This woman was clearly suffering from dementia, and she desperately needed medical attention.”
The Police Cars Were Gaining On Me
“So I had been driving a cab for about a year at that point, typically working from six at night to three in the morning. My dispatcher calls me to travel to a nearby house towards the end of my shift. A short drive later, I pull up in this circular driveway as a car pulls out the other end and speeds off. The largest man I have ever seen in my life comes barreling out of the house like an angry bull and jumps into my car. He exclaims, ‘Did you see that car that just left? FOLLOW IT!’
I caught up to the other car and followed it out onto the highway, but as soon as it reaches the highway, the car puts on its hazard lights and floors it. The massive mountain of a man in my back seat told me how his wife was in the other car, and she was in labor. His father-in-law was driving the car. He told me if I could catch up to this frantic car, he would give me two hundred dollars for a tip. Naturally, I also floor it and am driving at about ninety mph in a forty-five mph zone. Well it turned out that his father-in-law was also the local city’s police chief, and he had called in for some backup. I looked in my rearview mirror and see four cop cars about a mile away from me. They were catching up very fast. I was panicking and almost started to slow down, but the passenger told me that the cars for for his father-in-law to get rid of traffic. Sure enough, two of the cop cars go speeding past me, even though I was driving as fast as I possibly could on this road. The other two cars kept driving behind me, so I guess I was considered part of the entourage? It’s only another minute or two before we squeal up to the hospital entrance. Two nurses were already waiting outside for the woman. The giant man thanks me, hands me the money, and he immediately jumps out of the car. It all happened so fast, and no other night on the job was ever as thrilling as this one.”
Stop In The Name Of Love!
“I drove cabs years ago in Brisbane, Australia. I’m in the cab line at the Roma St. Station when a very attractive woman hops into the cab in front of mine. Within seconds of her getting in, a young man opened the door to my cab and jumped in. He told me, ‘This is going to sound really corny, but can you follow that cab?’
He pointed to the cab the young woman got into. Now driving a cab can be pretty boring at times, especially when you are sitting in a cab line for ages, so I quickly agreed. We waited for the cab in front to start, my foot just above the gas pedal. We kept waiting. And waiting. The driver in front opened his door and lifted the hood of the car. Apparently, that cab wouldn’t start. It looked like he wasn’t able to fix anything, so the woman got out of the cab and walked back towards ours. She sticks her head in the window and asks if she can get a ride with us. I turn to the young man and ask if that was okay, and he obviously said yes. The young woman needed to get to the airport, as she had some urgent business in Sydney. I drove over in that direction while the two of them sat in the back, making small talk. By the time we get to the airport, she has given the young man her phone number, which is what he clearly wanted all along. I dropped her off and asked the young man where he wanted to go to next. He told me to take him back to the station. Apparently he had been changing trains there on the way to work and spotted the young woman. He immediately needed to know who she was and get her number. As we drive back, this guy had a grin on his face so big that it practically wound around his head. The guy offers to give me a tip when we reach the station, but I refuse. I told him this story alone was worth more than any tip, and he smiled at me as we parted ways. It was a wild story, but as I look back on it, a tip still would have been pretty nice.”
The Truth Was Pretty Embarrassing
“I was driving a taxi one summer at this pretty big resort destination known for hosting wild parties. One night, these two dudes jumped in my car and yelled at me to follow the taxi ahead of me, which I happily obliged. The chase was on! It turns out that one of their friends was super wasted and decided to go back to the hotel without telling them. They only saw their friend leaving the club wasted, and they thought he was going to the next club without them. He was actually going to the hotel to fall asleep, so that definitely made for a much more mellow evening than they had planned.
Another time, these three women jumped in my taxi and yelled at me to follow the car ahead of me. That car in question was a black sedan with tinted black windows. The car seemed pretty suspect, so I was more than happy to follow it and investigate what was really going on there. I follow that sedan for fifteen minutes, leaving the resort I was parked at to drive into the literal forest. The girls in the back seat are freaking out, and they tell me how one of their friends (who was also a girl) was seen stepping into this mysterious car. When we corner the car and the girls get out to see what was happening, it turns out that their friend was just trying to hook up with the guy driving the car. The met in the club everyone had been at, and she was about to get busy when we pulled up next to the car and the women started beating on the sedan’s windows. Yeah, that was a particularly weird summer, one that I shall never forget!”
Hamptons Havoc
“The year that I turned twenty, my friend and I both got jobs as taxi drivers in the Hamptons. It wasn’t like we were waiting for age twenty to do this, but I was pretty young and naive, almost too much for the job. It was an incredible and insane experience, and I have too many bizarre stories I remember from that summer. I received offers to smoke crack, I regularly picked up millionaires from helipads, and I rebuffed forceful advances from many wasted and aggressive men. But there was only one legitimate car chase. For context, my shift was from five in the evening to five in the morning, and us summer hires would only work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, when everyone was out partying and spending tons of money After a few weeks on the job, my boss let me take the cab home between shifts, so I don’t have to drive my ancient Honda back and forth so often. It was mid-afternoon on a Friday, and I was in some pretty heavy traffic while waiting to start my night. All of the sudden, the line of cars ahead of me comes to a screeching halt. I look into my rearview mirror to see the woman driving behind me panic and swerve to the right. Unfortunately she didn’t turn hard enough, and she clips my bumper and taillight. No big deal, we can just pull over and do the insurance shuffle, right? Nope, she zooms down the shoulder and drives away. The chase has begun! She hooks into a parking lot, with my following and loudly honking, trying to get her to pull over. She was inaudibly shouting something and waving her arms in reply. Thankfully this didn’t have to be a high-speed chase with all of her reckless driving. After some more twists and turns, she pulled into a driveway and tried to hustle into a house. By that point, I was already on the phone with the police, giving them the address of this house. It was getting pretty late at this point, but thankfully the cops arrived and I was able to give a statement. While I drove away, I felt somewhat bad about the whole thing. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was on the run due to sketchy insurance or an immigration status. But there was no way that I could bring in a smashed-up cab to my boss without getting a detailed police report as well. I did get some strange looks when I showed up at the office to trade in a more pristine cab, but the rest of that night was thankfully fairly normal. I don’t know what happened to that woman, but there definitely was something pretty sketchy going on underneath the surface.”
The Accidental Stalking
“One time, I had this guy get in who told me he was looking for his friend’s car. He kept telling me to slow down as we drove through Waikiki so he could check to see if different people were the friend he was looking for, of if he could see the car anywhere. After a minute, I got the feeling that he wasn’t actually looking for a specific person, and he was just fishing. You’ll see what I mean in a second. We drove around for a while and got the meter up to $25. From time to time, my passenger would get out, look at someone, and then get back into the cab. I can’t imagine what anyone who encountered him was thinking. Eventually, the passenger saw someone and told how this was the friend, still maintaining this facade. The passenger got out of the car, asked the guy if he was guy, the guy said he was, and my passenger asked if he wanted to go to the nearby hotel. I drove both of them to the nearby hotel. I unwittingly assisted a completely random hookup for $30. I never found out if anyone involved made it out alive. Was it actually a hookup, or a secret murder ploy? You decide!
Another time, I picked up this twenty-something woman who desperately flagged me down. That girl was going to the coast guard based about a half an hour away. On the lengthy drive, we talked about all of the fast food we missed from the main land. It was surprisingly in depth and nuanced, and I was surprised at how much fun I was having at a usually dull job. Once we reached the gates of the coast guard base, I turned around to talk to the woman about payment. My jaw his the ground. Part of her chest was completely out of her dress. She somehow had no idea this was happening. I thought very, very hard about what would be more embarrassing: me pointing out this accidental flashing, or her later realizing that I definitely noticed it. I saw that the guard at the gate was a woman, and I decided that she would be a much better person to point out this problem.
Another time, this group of dudes hopped into my taxi, on Halloween night, wanting to go to McDonald’s. The only one in town was quite a ways away, so we had plenty of time on our hands. Once we got there, most of the dudes went inside, but this one man stayed behind so I didn’t think this group was trying to ditch me without paying. We sat in the parking lot for a while, and the conversation naturally flowed into rap music. Now I am not super well-educated on rap music, but I know enough to maintain a decent conversation. We really got into this topic, analyzing modern trends vs. more classic styles, and discussing who the best lyricists really were. The other friends returned and I dropped them off at their homes, until it was just me and this man. When I turned around this time to talk about the payment, I noticed that he was wearing an ill-fitting yet cute strapless dress. Apparently it was a last minute Halloween costume, and I could understood why he didn’t really want to go into that McDonald’s in person. Look, I just see the people in my rearview mirror, I don’t always see the entire picture. Being a cab driver can be way more bizarre than you would expect!”
Late Night Superhero
“I used to be a taxi driver a few years ago in a smaller town in California. One of the most popular things to do in this town was get super wasted at one of the few bars in town, and I made decent money by driving wasted people home every night. One night in particular, around the last call, I had picked up a group at a bar that was headed to an after party to continue their adventures, with several cars following to the new spot. Once we get to the new party spot (an apartment complex of all places), and my passengers vacate, I notice a large crowd all converging quickly toward the entrance of the complex. Knowing some stuff was about to go down, I made my way toward the entrance and positioned myself in a way so I could see what was going on, but could easily get out of there if I needed to. Apparently before I had picked up my fare, there had been some words exchanged at the bar. A couple carloads of angry and offended bar goers had followed the convoy to the new party spot and intended to continue whatever happened at the bar. A fight breaks out, and some dude is getting punched while sitting in his truck. There had to be about thirty people getting involved, and for some reason everyone just jumped out of their cars and left them running with the doors open, before engaging in all out fistfights. During all this craziness, I notice a dude run across the street and jump into somebody else’s Infinity G35, and this is where everything got unreal for me.
The guy throws it in reverse and slams into three separate parked cars. I’m realizing that he could hit me and quickly back out of the way, and he flips around with half the car hanging off of the back end while taking off. The owner of the car starts running down the street after him, and I am so curious that I need to chase this guy down and call 911. Eventually, this guy realized I was tailing him, and he started to drive super recklessly in the residential area we were all in. I wasn’t about to get hurt or have any further damage done, so I backed off. Not even a minute later, police were swarming the area and they had him pulled over and in custody. So no, I didn’t have like a James Bond passenger jump in my taxi and tell me to follow that car, but I did have a crazy moment where I felt compelled to follow a car because I thought it was the right thing to do. Anytime people ask me if I’ve seen crazy stuff as a taxi driver, I tell them this story.
But that was only the first of my two wildest stories. I was dispatched the a local winery, where people love to participate in free tasting events and get wasted. There was a group of wasted women who hit it off with equally wasted hockey players, who tell them to meet up at the local club for more drinks and fun. For whatever reason, they thought this would be a good idea, and that’s how I came into the picture. I show up and these four supremely wasted women stumble into my cab. Surprisingly, they were able to behave themselves and be relatively polite, except for the one girl in the passenger seat. She was trying super hard to flirt with me, and her friends weren’t really stopping her from doing so. We get to the club, and all of them need to pee, which they loudly tell me. They also ask me to wait for them, in case they can’t find the hockey guys. After fifteen minutes of waiting, they realize that they probably got stood up or something, and they return to my taxi. The woman in the passenger seat was giving a ‘look.’ You know that look when someone is trying super hard not to throw up, but they’re still going to anyway? I knew I had to make some evasive maneuvers or vomit was about to hit the fan. I immediately pulled over and told her just to open the door and let the chunks fly if she could, and she obliged. Her friends were laughing until the one behind her caught a whiff of that rancid vomit stench and started puking. This continued for about three random stops before we eventually reached the freeway. Before entering the freeway, I made a concerted effort to ask and make sure they were good to go before we got on the freeway, because it would be a bit harder to stop and remedy their puking tendencies. We stop one more time, and I was assured they were good to go. Never trust wasted people.
We were going about 70 down the freeway, and looking at the front passenger, you could tell she was having a bad time. All of a sudden, she just casually rolls down the window, going 70 miles an hour, and just starts fire hose vomiting. Try to imagine vomiting out of a window in a vehicle that’s going 70 miles an hour, and then try to imagine being the person sitting directly behind said vomiter. This poor girl in the back seat took chunks all up in her face, and that stuff sprayed over half the back of my car. Now I have a car full of wasted girls screaming while the passenger is like the exorcist, vomiting continually. Meanwhile, I am flying down the freeway! Eventually, I get them dropped off, and they considerately offered me extra for the trouble I was about to have to deal with in terms of cleaning up this explosion of vomit in my cab. The only lucky one in this adventure was the girl directly behind me. She was the only person who didn’t get vomit on her. I ended up having to use a garden hose to clean out the disgusting vomit from a solid 60% of my cab. The smell was even harder to remove.”
