Beck driver gets out to help fare, has vehicle stolen
“Happy Fricken’ Holidays!”
Christmas Spirit must have been in short supply on December 18th, when a Beck Taxi driver got out of his cab to assist a senior woman and had his vehicle stolen.
The 36-year veteran driver is known as “Lincoln” to everyone at Beck: “He has been with us forever, and everybody loves Lincoln. He has seen everything over the years,” Kristine Hubbard, Operations Manager at Toronto’s Beck Taxi told Taxi News.
“Well, maybe he thought he’d seen everything, before Monday.”
Lincoln was at the intersection of Main and Danforth when a fare hailed him. The fare was a senior lady who was obviously struggling with an armload of packages and shopping bags.
Lincoln noticed her struggle but could not stop in the bike lane immediately in front of her, so he pulled ahead to a legal standing spot, put his blinkers on, and hopped out of the cab to walk back and assist her. While he was doing this, the thief jumped into the vehicle and took off.
“Happy Fricken’ Holidays!” Hubbard exclaimed in disbelief.
The ending is mostly happy, as neither Lincoln nor the fare were hurt, although Lincoln’s belongings were stolen. Police located the vehicle a short time later. All Beck Taxis are painted a highly recognizable combination of bright orange and green with a roof light and a plate number, and are equipped with a security camera and tracked by a Global Positioning System (GPS). It’s hard to imagine how far the thief thought he would get.
“Lincoln had planned a trip to Jamaica for Christmas, so he’s going ahead with that and police will have is car for him when he gets back,” Hubbard says.
Beck Taxi was the scene of one of the craziest Christmas stories ever in 2021 when an “emotional support python” was left behind in a cab during the holidays. In that case, the driver got out of the cab and locked it until the owner returned to claim the snake, then went back to work.
