Police force woman to give up her iPod as cab fare - Macenstein

Police force woman to give up her iPod as cab fare

After 20 swipes of 20-year-old Nataie Lenhart’s credit card resulted in 20 “declined” messages, cab driver Mohammed Islam called 911. The responding officers to the “crime” scene (JFK International Airport) then proceeded to come up with one of the more bizarre (if not illegal) solutions to the problem – They forced Lenhart to give the cab driver her $140 Red iPod nano as payment. The fare was only $49, but the officers insisted Natlie surrender her iPod to Islam or be taken “downtown”.


Above: Lenhart, left, and cab driver Islam, right.

To his credit, the driver, Islam, did not want the iPod, but took it at the officer’s insistence. “What am I going to do with the iPod? There’s no headphones!” Islam wondered. The unorthodox exchange went down December 8, and Islam still has the iPod, and would like to return it to Lenhart in exchange for the $49 fare. The Port Authority has said such actions are against its policies, and is investigating if the officers stepped out of bounds in ordering the iPod be given as compensation.

Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader The Schaff for the tip!

[via the New York Post]

Comments
11 Responses to “Police force woman to give up her iPod as cab fare”
  1. GreenStar says:

    I wonder how far my old Apple IIe will get me?

  2. edoreld says:

    What a bad solution!

    The should have made her give her iPod to me instead ^_^

  3. Trondheim says:

    I wonder how many iPods she owns.

  4. Richard says:

    great! new scam: last time thru JFK, cabby claimed “credit card denied”, yelled for me to pay cash; hoping to avoid NYC police trouble, paid the $. of course now i get to figure out how to convince credit card company to remove the charge for the same cab ride that DID show up on my bill… hard to prove i did pay twice

  5. iShervin says:

    I would never give up my iPod/iPhone!!! I will die…

  6. Javier says:

    The only thing more hilarious than the “solution” of the “officers” is the fact that an arab man called Muhamed has as his second name Islam. And i don´t meant to be racist at all: I´d find equally hillarious or even more, a britishman called Jhon Anglican or a Spanish one called José Cristiano. In fact i know a Pepe Cristiano. So now excuse me, I have to call him right now just to laugh at his name.

  7. Anthony says:

    “surrender her iPod to Islam”

    Take that infidels! lol

  8. Xero says:

    right cause a $130 electronic device is tottaly ad aquate compinsation

    though the fact that the cabby is willing to give it back for the unpaid fare is verry cool of him

  9. Aldo Johnson says:

    Are ye sure Muhammad is Arabic? He might be Pakistani? Or a Muslim Indian?

  10. modiglian says:

    “To his credit, the driver, Islam, did not want the iPod, but took it at the officer’s insistence.”

    He knew that thing doesn’t even have radio, of course he didn’t want it.

  11. what else could have been done? she has to pay the man somehow, and that seemed to be the most viable option. Was she expecting the cab driver to let her slide or something? She should have just called mommy or daddy and entered in their credit card number.
    -Jack

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