New Amsterdam taxi drivers doubt local hijacking report
Guyana Chronicle
October 24, 2003
AS Police ranks and officers of the Central Police Station, New Amsterdam were conducting investigations into the alleged hijacking of a taxicab and its driver in the eastern township on Tuesday, other drivers have expressed disbelief at the allegation.
Reports revealed that a taxi driver claimed that his vehicle had been hijacked by four young men at the corners of Republic Road (back dam) and Philadelphia Street (High Bridge) whilst he was transporting a female passenger from the New Amsterdam Hospital to Stanleytown on Tuesday.
The driver had related that upon reaching the female passenger’s destination at Lot 41 Stanleytown, he was ordered to proceed further to an earthen roadway, which runs along another track on the southern end of Stanleytown. This track is believed owned by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO).
There, the diver claimed, the hijackers threw him and the passenger out of the car, prior to removing the car’s transmission set. No cash or valuables were taken during the ordeal.
But, when the Chronicle spoke to some taxi and hire car operators on Wednesday, they stated that their colleague was not hijacked as he claimed. They said that he was indeed relieved of the radio set, but that this happened whilst he was enjoying a special moment with his paramour cum passenger on the mud dam commonly called ‘Lovers Day’.
One driver said that it was a regular habit of his colleague, only that this time he experienced losses.
It was stated that youths would normally go in the cane fields to smoke marijuana. After leaving the cane field on Tuesday, some young men apparently came upon the couple and probably thought it a good idea to remove the radio set in order to teach the driver a lesson.