"It’s traumatizing. Who wants a gun put on their neck for trying to support their family,” said Robbie Burgit. “These are state of the art security cameras. They’re going to be installed and they’re going to transmit to a satellite, so (the video) is going to leave the taxi cab.”
Customer Brad Wiedlich said the recent rash of armed cab robberies has made drivers and passengers leery of riding in taxis after dark.
“It’s pretty scummy. The robberies lately of the cabs has been pretty bad,” said Wiedlich. “Someone even stole a car."
During the latest armed cab robbery over the weekend, a police cruiser crashed into a garage while responding to the call.
Authorities said two men robbed the cab driver, and then fired two gunshots as they ran off.
Over the weekend, Wilkes-Barre police also charged Sharndel Jackson of New York with a different cab robbery last month.
According to court documents, Jackson robbed the cab driver at gunpoint, forced the driver out, drove the stolen cab several blocks then abandoned the car and fled on foot.
Burgit said cab drivers have not been injured during the armed robberies, and he is considering hiring armed, off-duty officers to ride along or drive cabs during overnight shifts if the violence continues.