New York City taxi gang forces couple to pay $470 for 10-minute ride
The couple realised in hindsight they should have taken a yellow taxi.
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Your support makes all the difference.A British couple were the victims of a scam by a rogue New York taxi gang who forced them to pay $470 - for a 10-minute ride.
Craig Nickels, 30, and his fiancee Ellie Austin, 24, were scared into handing over the cash by two men who picked them up outside John F Kennedy airport.
The pair's nightmare started after they landed in New York '"exhausted" - after saving up for months to afford the trip from Manchester Airport earlier this month.
According to Nickels, they got in the car of a man who stood in the airport entrance and offered them a cab to their hotel. Nickels, from Derby, assumed it would go on the meter and cost $50.
Instead, the pair was led to a private car park away from the taxi rank and into a minibus driven by a second man.
The second man asked them for $20 for the parking fee - which they presumed would be taken off the bill - and told them they'd sort the fare "when we get there."
"He started explaining to us that there were new toll fees for going between borough and over bridges," recalled Craig. "He then told me to take me to Manhattan it was going to be $900. Me and the Mrs couldn't believe what we were hearing. I told him to pull over."
"We only had $900 total. I panicked. I had the engagement ring in the back in the bags," he said. "I knew it was supposed to be 50 or 60 dollars but I started to get scared. There were two guys and I had no idea what they were going to do.
Worried that the thieves might drive off with the bags, or that they had a weapon, Nickels handed over the money.
"He was going on and on about how his boss would get involved, and while he wasn't physically forceful, he was trying to scare me."
The couple was also intimidated into handing over their passport information.
"In the end, he said he'd drop it to $470 and in the end, I gave him it. I was shaken up and upset and scared," Nickels said of the attack.
However, it was then the couple realised they had only travelled four miles.
Fortunately, when they explained the situation to subway staff, they were given a ticket to Manhattan for free.
Upon returning to the airport at the end of their trip, the couple called the police who took statements. Police are now hunting for the men who conned the pair into handing over passport details and their address before falsely claiming the massive sum was due to new city-wide tolls.
Despite the unlucky incident, the rest of Nickels and Austin's vacation went off without a hitch. Nickels parents sent the couple £400 to get them through their holiday and he went on to propose to Ellie during the break, at the top of the Rockefeller Centre.
"Obviously it was a brilliant holiday, but the scam did take the shine off it," the dad-of-two said. "They said you need to stick to the yellow cabs. Now we know that and just want to warn other people who might not know."
"The cops said they had heard of these people and they had heard of people losing their luggage when they drive off. They absolutely hustled us."
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