Matt Karolian reports a harrowing ride today with a cabbie who refused to accept that city regulations prohibit him from charging the cost of the return toll to people headed to East Boston - a ride that ended at Boston Police District A-7, where the cabbie wanted Karolian charged with fare evasion and Karolian threatened to press a kidnapping charge.
As any East Boston resident will tell you, city taxi regulations bar a toll charge for one-way trips to East Boston, but as the cabbie approached Karolian's house, he not only refused to accept that, he began racing to the police station to have Karolian arrested.
"The cabbie just kept insisting this must have been my first time taking a cab in Boston," Karolian said. "He refused to stop and ran stop signs to prevent me from leaving the car. I advised him that I would have him charged with false imprisonment or kidnapping if he did not let me pay the fare and leave."
"This is a consistent issue for people who live in East Boston most of the time the cabbie will make a huge to-do about the toll to go back into Boston," he said. "If the driver says nothing, I generally give him the toll money anyway and thank him for being a professional."
That didn't happen in this case. Karolian said that after hearing both sides, a desk officer at A-7 ordered the cabbie to accept his meter-based payment and let Karolian go.
Karolian said he walked home from A-7.
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