PHOENIX (CBS5) -
You think you're being responsible if you've had a few drinks and choose to take a cab home from the bar. But if you're not careful, that decision could put you in danger.
"It was a cab company that we take all the time," said Camille Steffen.
It was the end of a night out in Old Town Scottsdale, and Steffen decided she was ready to go home.
"And I just got in one of the cabs that was sitting there because they're all waiting," she said.
She left before her friends and decided to hop in the front seat. She admitted that wasn't the best move, but it still doesn't justify what she said happened next.
"Every time I would look out the window or lean my head against the window or whatever, he would start touching my leg," she said.
When Steffen tried to use her phone, she said the driver took it away. At that point she said he kicked her out of the cab.
"Fortunately we were close to where I lived, so I just walked the rest of the way," she said.
"Well unfortunately I've seen a lot of victims of taxi cab drivers over the last 15 years of doing law here in the Valley," said Friedl Richardson attorney Tommy Richardson.
Richardson goes after those bad cabbies and said he's seen it all.
"Oh my word, I see cab drivers assaulting the fares because the fares don't have the money to pay and it's actually physical contact that happens. Sexual assault, physical contact, fist, weapons, any array of bad things you can think of," he said.
Richardson said you should be just as wary around major companies as those mom and pop cabs.
"Well the major companies need the drivers the most, so major companies are less likely to check backgrounds of the drivers," he said.
That means it's up to you to be twice as smart, first making the decision not to drink and drive and then keeping tabs on your cabbie.
"That's the irony of it. You're being responsible when you call a cab, you're trying to protect other people on the road and unfortunately you're at your most vulnerable state at that point that you need a cab," Richardson said.
So how can you stay safe? Richardson said use the buddy system whenever you take a cab. If you can't, get out your cell phone and talk to somebody the whole way home - that way the cabbie knows someone else knows where you are.
Copyright 2012 KPHO (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
