A Toronto man who flagged down a very real-looking taxi is speaking out after he had his debit car swiped at the end of the ride by the not-so-real cab driver who took him home.
Stephen Lautens told CP24 that he and his wife had just left an event in downtown Toronto at around 11 p.m. Friday night when they spotted a cab on Bay Street and hopped in to go home.
After a pleasant ride making chitchat with the driver about world events, the couple arrived at their home and tried to pay with cash.
“My wife and I always have cash for taxis and I said, ‘Well, okay. Here it is,’” Lautens told CP24.com. “And he goes ‘Oh, you know, I don’t like cash. In COVID people weren’t handling cash, and drivers are a target for a robbery. Do you have a card?’”
Lautens said he offered to pay by Visa and was handed an older looking terminal without tap capability.
When he put in his card and attempted to pay, the machine returned a “connection failure” error.
The driver asked to see the machine, so Lautens handed it back.
“He said ‘well, that’s it. It’s not working. Do you have a debit card?’”
When the driver handed back the Visa, Lautens realized that it wasn’t his card.
“At that point, I noticed. I went like ‘Hey, wait a second. You’ve given me back the wrong credit card.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, you know people leave their wallet here all the time. I got a credit card. Here, just a second’ and he gives me back my credit…
