Woman conned me, says taxi driver

A TAXI DRIVER conned by a woman who claimed to work for a television station believes the culprit is the same person who used a similar story and stole $300 from the wallet of a print-shop owner in San Fernando last week.

Ricardo Hannaway visited Newsday’s office on Thursday saying he wants the woman to repay him the money he loaned her and for his hired services, which totalled $1,000.

He showed a handwritten note, signed by the woman. Her driver’s permit number was under her signature.

It read, "I (woman’s name) promise to pay Ricardo $1,000 by Wednesday 31st July 2019, by Munch Kings Ice Cream shop in St James by 4 pm."

Hannaway said the document was signed on July 29 at the Barataria police station where he went hoping to resolve the matter. The woman also told him she works as a caterer.

The taxi driver said he met her on July 26 at the Port of Spain General Hospital. She hired him and he agreed. A few hours later she called him, and they met up at an ice cream shop in St James.

While she was waiting for him in the shop, Hannaway later found out, she asked a staff member for $500, claiming police had wrecked her car and she needed to retrieve it.

He left with her to run her errands, in the course of which they stopped at different places and they chatted.

She borrowed his phone to call the boss at the TV station because she said she had forgotten her phone with another driver .

Hannaway said: "That lady ketch me. I did not ask a question. I don’t know what went wrong with me that day. It just happened. She first asked for $180 and did not give a reason. She promised to pay me $500 for the job, and when it is done, she would pay back all she borrowed from me that day."

In the afternoon they went to a shopping plaza, where she claimed to have bought food for him.

"I was really hungry, so I eat the food. We also had to go to the airport, but she was taking long to come back. When I went into the place where she said she bought the food, they told me she begged the bossman for it," Hannaway said.

He searched the area, but she had already left.

On July 29, he spotted her at the Mt Hope hospital and confronted her. She was with a man and started to walk off. There was a confrontation between him and the man and security guards intervened and quelled it.

He and the woman went to the Barataria police station that day and she promised to pay him.

To date, she still owes him and he wants his money.

He is warning people to beware.

"That is how she lives. She conned the ice cream lady of $500. She likes energy drinks and drinks it the whole day. She always says her husband has a heart problem and walks around with papers."

The modus operandi of the woman who stole from the Offbeat print shop last week Tuesday was similar. She claimed to work for the same TV station and to have car problems.

Southern Division police said she walked into the shop on St James Street in San Fernando and said she wanted 200 shirts printed, as well as flyers.

The owner reported to police that the woman began chit-chatting about personal problems, saying the ceiling of her home at Westmoorings had collapsed. She also said she was having trouble with her car in a nearby car park and needed to borrow $60 to fix it. Busy with other customers, the owner made nothing of the woman’s issues.

The woman left to check on the car and returned a few times, each time with an energy drink. She also asked to use the washroom.

Shortly before 5 pm, when the owners were preparing to close the shop, they realised the money was missing as well as three T-shirts and two pairs of pants from the business.

Police confirmed that that woman has not yet been arrested.