Markeshia Ricks Photo
Cabbie Marixxa Berrios has a new reason to be cautious — someone has been robbing her fellow Union Station cabbies at knifepoint upon reaching his destination.
At about 1:40 a.m. on Dec. 6, and again at midnight on Dec. 9, a man dressed in a dark colored knit hat and hoodie was seen walking around the train station before heading outside to the cab line outside the train station.(The suspect is in the above surveillance video released by the police.) Each time, he stood back, watched for a second, then joined the line. A cab pulled up, he got in, and the cab pulled away.
It’s a pretty common sight at any time of the day or night at Union Station.
Sgt. Manmeet Colon, who heads up the New Haven Police Department’s robbery and burglary unit, said the trouble occurred when the man, or someone who looks a lot like him, arrived at his destination.
The first time the man had the cab driver take him to Blake Street. Instead of pulling out his wallet to pay his fare, he pulled a knife on the driver and demanded money. The man got away with $300, Colon said. The cabbie ended up with knife wounds.
In the second robbery, the same scenario played itself out, but this time the man asked the cab driver to take him to Winthrop Avenue. The driver was not hurt this time; the knife-brandishing robber got away with $150.
The same thing happened to two other drivers who declined to file a police report.
Similar incidents have been reported in Hamden and Norwalk, with one incident being called a homicide, Colon said. It is unknown whether these incidents are related to the robberies in New Haven.
The suspect.
Colon said the alleged robber might be targeting cab drivers, particularly foreign-born drivers, because he believes they are less likely to call the police for fear of bringing immigration officials to their door. She urged cab drivers to not be afraid to file a report, regardless of their immigration status.
“Their safety is paramount,” she said.
After the first robbery, Detective Juan Ingles, who is investigating the crimes, spent time talking to cab drivers and warning them about the danger. The story has made its way among the cab drivers who line up at the station.
A cab driver for Checker Cab Co., who didn’t give his name, said he’s never been robbed.
“You really can’t do anything but cooperate” in a robbery, he said. “You don’t know what the person behind you might have.”
Berrios (pictured at the top of the story), who drives for Ada’s Taxi LLC., said she’s been driving off and on for four years. She said the male cab drivers tend to keep an extra watch over the handful of women drivers like her who pick up fares at Union Station. So do the security guards who work at the station.
“We all look out for each other,” she said. “If I don’t feel comfortable taking someone, the security guards always come up and tell me I don’t have to take that person if I don’t feel safe.”
Her other protection is that she mostly works days. She doesn’t carry cash or take cash fares. She accepts only credit cards, so anyone trying to rob her for cash would be out of luck.
“I’m not scared,” she said. “That’s why I pray every day.”
Colon said if anyone has information about the man in the video they should call her or Ingles at 203 – 946-6304.
They should do like new york city which requires all livery cars to have either a bullet-resistant partition or a digital camera, and amber trouble lights that can be activated from the driver's seat without being seen by a passenger.