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Good Samaritan pays $225 fare after taxi passenger disappears

A longtime Victoria cab driver got a taste of the kindness of strangers Friday after he was stiffed on a $225 cab fare.
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A B.C. Human Rights tribunal has dismissed a complaint against Victoria Taxi over an incident in July 2014.

A longtime Victoria cab driver got a taste of the kindness of strangers Friday after he was stiffed on a $225 cab fare.

Victoria Taxi driver BJ Roberts picked up a man in his 20s, who asked how much it would be from Victoria General Hospital to Nanaimo.

Roberts, 75, said it would be about $220, and the man, who identified himself as Jason, said his mother would pay the fare once they arrived.

The man called someone named Cindy from Roberts’ cellphone and made as though he was talking to his mother, telling her the price of the fare.

When they arrived at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, the passenger said he would go inside to get his mother, who he said worked in the lab.

The man disappeared inside the hospital. Roberts waited.

“After about five minutes, I started getting a bad feeling,” he said. Roberts sometimes asks passengers to leave a wallet or ID to ensure their return, but didn’t this time. “I really never saw it coming.”

Roberts went into the hospital but couldn’t find the man. He asked a staff member at the information desk if there was a woman named Cindy working in the lab. They said no.

“I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I just got scammed out of $225.’ ”

Suddenly, a man in his 50s approached Roberts and pushed a wad of bills into his hand.

“And this guy said, ‘Excuse me, sir. Here, please take this, there’s $225 here, I want you to have it.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Roberts recalled.

“He said, ‘Listen, I’ve driven cabs for some years when I was younger, I got shafted a few times, and I didn’t like it. It’s not fair to you. I can afford it, please take it.’ ”

Roberts, who has been driving cabs and limousines on and off since he was 19, shook the man’s hand, thanked him profusely and walked out of the hospital. The Good Samaritan didn’t want to give him his name.

“It leaves me feeling very good,” Roberts said, adding: “I will never make that mistake again.”

Roberts said he reported the incident to Nanaimo RCMP and was told there was a slim chance the passenger would be found.

kderosa@timescolonist.com