Taxi Scam

We did not post this at the beginning of our trip because we did not want family and friends to worry about us, but we had quite an adventure when we first arrived in Paris.

We landed at the Charles de Gaulle Airport on November 11 and got through French passport control. As we were about to exit the terminal to grab a taxi, a man approached us and asked if we wanted a taxi to downtown. We knew there was a set price for taxis to go to downtown Paris of €55, and he agreed on that amount for a price. He took us to the parking deck, loaded our luggage and we got in the car, which was labeled as a taxi. He talked rapidly in broken English and told us his name was Steven and that he was from the Seychelle Islands. He tried one exit to the parking garage, then spoke to someone on his cell phone (he had the speaker open) and he chose another exit. I thought this was strange. We traveled south maybe five minutes and a police car, with blue lights flashing and siren screaming, pulled behind our car. The police car kept pulling up beside us, trying to nudge our taxi to the side of the road. A five-minute high-speed chase on the motorway followed, with the police trying to move us to the side of the road, and our driver cutting in and out of traffic trying to get away from the police. Glenda and I were uncertain if the car chasing us was actually an unmarked police car with undercover cops in it, or if they were thugs who were in cahoots with our driver in an attempt to kidnap us. Finally, one of the police officers showed an arm badge that said, “Police,” and at that point I told the driver twice he needed to pull over and stop. Finally he did. Two policeman frisked him, handcuffed him, and pushed him into the back seat of the police car.

Then the policemen came to me and we talked in my baby French, his baby English, and we used Apple translator. He filled out two forms with the information I gave him, and I signed the forms. By that time the police had hailed a legitimate taxi to take us and our luggage the rest of the way to the hotel. Evidently the police had been keeping our driver under surveillance and were watching him so that they could catch him in the act of posing as a taxicab driver for tourists. They told us that often illegitimate taxicab drivers will take unsuspecting tourists downtown and then charge them exorbitant prices for the ride. They refuse to let tourists get their luggage until they pay the ransom. We found out later that the automatic sentence for anyone in impersonating a taxi driver is €15,000 and one year in prison. It was not the way we expected to arrive in Paris, but it was certainly an adventure at the beginning of our trip. But we are fine and our trip has been wonderful.

Our taxi adventure was a little bit scary, but it happened so fast. Glenda and I are seasoned travelers, but in an airport decisions must be made quickly, and one doesn’t have a lot of time to think. You just respond. When you arrive at the airport you are exhausted from a long airplane flight and from being awake approximately 24 hours. You must take your passport out, put it away; get your boarding pass out, and then put your boarding pass away; navigate customs; remove belt, watch and shoes for security; and then gather all those things up and put them back on in less than a minute. Had we been moving at a deliberate pace, we might have thought things through, but that’s not how you move in an airport. There is no time for deliberation. There’s only time to move quickly to the next thing that has to be done. We really didn’t have time to panic or to think things through.

Lessons we learned:
1. A taxi driver in France is forbidden by law to ask anyone if they want a ride. You must approach the taxi cab driver yourself.
2. All taxi cabs must be labeled in several ways, including the “bubble gum machine” ON TOP, flashing green yellow or red light telling whether it’s available, busy or waiting. Our driver had the marker, but it was located in his rear window, not on top.
3. All taxis must be in one area of the airport and never in a separate area like a parking garage or parking lot
4. Taxi cab drivers cannot come into the terminal or speak to any potential passengers.もっと詳しく