A taxi driver in the city of Port Moresby was caught up in an armed robbery at Tuna Bay Resort after criminals pretending to be customers, forced him to transport them to the location yesterday, Friday 30th December where they robbed the place.
Father of three Mr. Jonah Timos from Mt Hagen in the Western Highlands province, said while parked at Vadavada round-about patiently waiting for customers, three (3) well-dressed men hopped into his taxi and asked to be dropped off at Tuna Bay Resort, Taurama. Mr. Timos said there was nothing suspicious about the 3 men because of the way they dressed and they all had a normal conversation on their way to Tuna Bay.
“The criminals hid their weapons so I couldn’t see them. They just told me that they were going to receive their payment from their boss at Tuna Bay,” he said.
When they reached the gate and entered, he parked the car and through his rearview mirror he could see one of the men behind him suddenly wearing a mask.
The 3 men then showed him 3 pistols and told him that if he didn’t cooperate with them, he would die. He pleaded for them to let him go and that it was okay for them to not pay the cab fee, but that did not go well with them because they wanted the taxi so to get away.
The criminals took his phone along with K100 from his pocket and after doing their business at the resort, the three armed men used the taxi as a get-away car and left the owner stranded there.
He said that after everything was done, he did not want to own up for the vehicle at first because he did not want the resort staff and management to suspect or think that he was part of the group because no one was outside and witnessed what had happened initially.
He said he rushed out and got on a PMV bus to file a report at the police station.
It was believed that during that time the criminals fled towards Mahuru, but abandoned the taxi because the Police SSD unit had already setup a roadblock at Mahuru.
He confirmed that the taxi is currently at Hohola Police Station. After knowing that his taxi was in a safe location, he returned to Tuna Bay Resort, explained himself and apologized for fleeing the scene in such a manner without explaining what had really happened.
Meanwhile, he is urging all taxi drivers and operators to take note of what had happened and to stay on alert this festive period.