Call Sign August 2007 - Page 30 - Tony's cab gets nicked and almost runs him over...

DaC driver Tony Welch (D85) recently had a narrow escape from death when his cab was stolen from right under his nose, while he was only yards away making an account delivery.
   At around 8pm on the evening of Monday 2 July, Tony was taking a package to Canonbury Park North and left his cab outside the delivery address.
   Tony takes up the story of the job that turned into a nightmare…
   "It was pouring with rain that evening. As I got off the cab with the parcel under my arm and made my way towards the delivery address, I noticed a man crouching down on the other side of the road and creeping towards my cab. At first I thought he was disabled and just crossing the road, but he suddenly sprang up and jumped into the drivers’ side of the cab! I ran back across the pavement towards the cab and tried to open the drivers’ door, but chummy had set the central locking, so it appears he knew what he was doing.
   "Incensed at what was happening, I stepped out in front of the cab thinking he would stop. Instead, he drove towards me and so I jumped onto the bonnet and clung on for dear life. The cab accelerated away and then suddenly braked, throwing me off into the road. To my horror, the villain then drove towards me, aiming my own taxi at me! At the last second he swung away and drove off at speed. There was one moment of humour though, that was when a passing motorist, having seen what was happening,

Tony’s cab gets nicked and almost runs him over…
But Hayley and Steve at the DaC Call Centre track it down!

Tony reminding DaC drivers not to do as he did with keys in the ignition

stopped to ask why that cab driver try to kill me!
"It was then that I became aware that I had the package to be delivered still under my arm. The motorist was very kind and phoned for the police who were with me in minutes. PC Johnson was excellent. He calmed me down and took details including whether the cab had a tracking system? I was so shaken that it took me several minutes to realise it would indeed be possible to trace my taxi’s movements and that’s when P.C. Johnson’s colleague called the DaC Call Centre for an update. With DaC now on the case as well, we jumped into the police van and, with the two-tone horns blaring, headed northeast towards Kenninghall Road, Clapton. Throughout this high-speed chase, Haley O’Connell monitored the cab from the Call Centre and directed us to its position. When we reached Kenninghall, there were already 3 other police vehicles on the scene, while a couple of police dogs retrieved a few items of my personal property.

The music radio had been completely removed and my moneybag and other documents were also missing, but at least I’d got my cab back intact after one hour of going AWOL! Steve Tyson, the Call Centre evening supervisor, was also very helpful and kind during a most stressful experience. The cab was taken away for forensic investigation and the police are considering a charge of ‘attempted murder’ when the perpetrator is caught. The police promised to keep me posted."
   Puzzled as to how a thief had driven off with Tony’s cab so easily, Call Sign’s reporter asked him…
   "I was silly enough to leave the key in the ignition," he replied dejectedly, "it was entirely my own fault, but I’ve learned a hard lesson and I want others to be wiser than me in future," he said. "When you leave your cab even for a minute, take out your keys and lock it!"
   Tony would like to thank all those who got involved that ghastly night, including our own Steve Tyson and Haley O’Connell for their sterling work in the Call Centre and to PC Johnson and his colleagues from Enfield Police Station for their gallant efforts out on the streets. Oh yes… and not forgetting the police dogs that found some of Tony’s personal effects and didn’t eat them!
   ă Call Sign Magazine MM7

Warren Smith and the troubled bankers?
Dial-a-Cab members of staff and suppliers besieged our Financial Accountant, Warren Smith, recently in his office when a glitch in the banking process meant that wages and invoices did not get paid on time. "It was like New York Grand Central Station in the rush hour," sighed Warren to our reporter! "Irate staff members were coming down to me saying they had not been paid their wages, but had their own bills and standing orders to pay out, relying on their salaries being paid into their bank accounts as usual and on time." He continued: "Everyone thought it was my mistake! One lady called me at least 18 times in	the same morning, but many other members of staff were also desperate to know what was going on because they reckoned they would incur bank and overdraft charges through no fault of their own. Things got pretty scary in this office while I phoned around to discover what had gone wrong. Eventually I got hold of someone at the bank who promptly blamed ‘third parties’ and it took me many more calls to	discover that the fault lay with a system called Bankline, which had well and truly screwed up!" Warren ended by telling us: "I have now been assured that an official apology is forthcoming and have insisted that we be given details of how our staff can make representations for redressing any bank charges they may have incurred due to the Bankline cock-up. Trouble was, I was also told that could take up to a week. "It’s funny how the banks manage to take their own charges immediately, yet when it comes to paying us back, they somehow find a way of taking considerably longer reimbursing their customers - us!"

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