Now, I don't want
to sound alarmist or anything -- OK, so I am going to clang a few
bells here -- but a very strange phenomenon has been occurring on
the streets of Pusan which I feel local commuters should beware of.
I don't know how many of you out there exploring the vast urban
sprawl of Korea's largest coastal city realize it but there's a new
kind of taxi shuttling folks over hill and dale. In fact, the
numbers of these environmentally correct vehicles is on the rise due
to a government edict to reduce air pollution (which he all know to
be a major force to contend with when going out and about). More and
more taxis cruising for clients these days are propane powered,
which is good as the exhaust is clean and the fuel more efficient.
Hip-hip-hooray for Korea's efforts to clean up the
environment!
But of course,
with every silver lining, there is a dark cloud. Wouldn't you know
that a few clever and ambitious taxi drivers are using this new
technology for profiteering purposes? In the past year, there have
been incidences of highway robbery of passengers by a jury-rigged
device in the cab. A hose is run from the propane gas line directly
into the back seat of the car gassing the unsuspecting passenger who
then passes out to be stripped of wallet, jewelry, and other
valuables by the driver. The poor dazed victim is then dumped on the
street in dark and unfamiliar parts unknown. Even after coming, the
victim doesn't at first realize what has happened. Only by the
reporting of these cases by the confused victims followed by months
of police investigation has the method of these crimes been
divulged. The news made the Korean press over the summer with a
warning for people to be wary.
When I asked how
it was a body could tell whether a taxi were propane powered or not
(i.e., some special logo, color, license number) not one of my
Korean acquaintances could say. In fact, they told me they couldn't
tell (so, maybe some of you readers out there might know something
about this) and added that I should be careful as cab crime is on
the rise. I personally know of half a dozen cases where women have
been abducted into the hinterlands and raped, where passengers have
been held up at knifepoint, and even one incident where a foreign
teacher here was sliced to shreds with a razor by a maniac passenger
in a shared taxi. In other words, riders
beware....
All in all, the
potential for any crime being committed against you in this manner
is very low. At most, you'll have to contend with the occasional
overcharging for a fare or sharing your cab with strangers who get
picked up along the way. I find that drivers usually ask me if it's
OK to stop for another passenger by saying something like, "Hapseung
haedo telkayo" to which you can say "Hapseung andayo." (For those
fluent Korean speakers out there, please jump in with corrections or
better phraseology at any time. I just find this simpler to
memorize.) If a cab driver insists on doing it his way, takes you
out of your way, or anything else that doesn't seem above board,
take down his name and ID number from his license which is always on
display on the dash. Make a lot of noise and get out of the cab at
the next opportunity. Taking down the plate number is also helpful.
Then report it to the police in the company of a Korean interpreter.
If the police don't want to deal with you, just insist. They'll
usually give in and do the paper work.
Like life in any
other metropolitan area in the world where the streets are crowded
and victims of crime are for the picking, you have to keep aware of
what's going on around you. Although for the most part people's
intentions are good whether for reducing pollution or taking you on
a shortcut to avoid traffic snarls, there are always those
evil-minded opportunists out there on the prowl for the
discombobulated, the out-of-sorts, the naïve. Act like a gawking
greenhorn and you may well become the next rising crime rate
statistic.
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