NYC cab driver speaks out after woman in orange wig smashes window with cinder block
MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- A New York City taxi driver is speaking out after police released shocking video of a woman smashing the window of his cab with a cinder block before making off with an iPhone and cash.
Footage shows the unidentified woman wearing an orange wig walk up to the taxi parked on West 37th Street between Ninth and 10th avenues between 10 and 11 a.m. on March 24.
She can be seen carrying a cinder block before smashing open the driver-side window to gain access.
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The driver, Augusto Quinde, said he had parked in a designated taxi relief zone and walked home to take a break. He returned 20 minutes later to find his window smashed.
"I thought someone hit my car with another car," he said. "It was not much money. It was $40 and my cell phone. The way they did it was something else."
He said he's been parking his car there for several years and never had a problem before, though he admits he left the cash and phone visible -- and plans to be more careful in the future.
"I've been telling my co-drivers to not make a mistake like I made," he said. "It was a big mistake leaving the money and my cell phone...She was passing by and she saw the money and she went crazy seeing it inside."
A FedEx driver, James Garcia, is the one who recorded the video of the incident.
"Before everything happened, she was trying to break the window when a metal thing," he said. "At first, I talked to her, 'Wait, wait, don't do it.' She screamed to me, 'Stop it, stop it. Stop snitching.'"
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The suspect ran away westbound on West 37th Street, with police saying she removed the wig as she fled.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
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