Commuters traveling by public transport in Montego Bay are being warned to be extra vigilant, after a report emerged that a teenage girl foiled what has been deemed an attempted abduction by a taxi operator on Saturday.
Reports are that a teenage girl and her friends went to the upscale Fairview Shopping Centre, Bogue, Montego Bay, to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
At the end of the celebration, the girls decided to take a taxi back to downtown Montego Bay, after a friend’s mother, who was scheduled to pick them up, failed to show.
Three of the girls boarded a taxi and the driver promptly attempted to give them masks and insisted that they put them on because “Corona de go roun”.
One of the girls, however, told him she had her own mask and did not need one. However, the taxi driver responded: “Unnu have dem on from morning, dem need fi change”. Her two friends took the masks and one attempted to put it on, when she grabbed the mask from her, suspecting that something was wrong with the masks. The girl who grabbed the mask from her friend said the mask felt damp.
In the meantime, two other women boarded the taxi and the driver gave them masks. One woman reportedly put on the mask and within a few seconds, the girls observed that her head dropped to the left and rested on the left window and she seemed totally lifeless.
The alert teenager, who did not accept the mask, pointed it out to her friends and the other woman, who sprang from the car, and frantically shook her friend in an attempt to revive her. When she did not respond, she pulled her from the vehicle and helped her into the nearby Fontana Pharmacy for assistance.
The girls rushed from the vehicle and the driver sped off without taking up any other passenger.
Meanwhile, the Montego Bay CIB says while it is aware of the incident, it is asking anyone with information on this matter to contact them at 684-9080 or to visit the office at St. James Police Divisional Headquarters at Freeport.
