Taxi hijacked

Press, 14 May 1984, Page 9

Taxi hijacked

PA Napier A man will appear in the District Court at Napier today charged with aggravated robbery after the holdup of a taxi driver on Saturday night. The incident, which spread over 16 hours, began when a taxi driver was directed to collect a fare in a suburban area at 10.30 p.m.

The fare, a man, was driven into the city and then asked to be taken to a Westshore address where he produced a carving knife

and held it at the driver’s neck, the police said. The driver was ordered to travel north from Napier and when the vehicle reached the Napier-Taupo road he was robbed of $2O. At Te Pohue, about 40km north of Napier, the taxi stopped and the driver escaped uninjured. However, the man took the taxi and continued north. At 12.25 a.m. police found the taxi extensively damaged on the Napier side of the Mohaka bridge about 20km further north. The search for the man took on urgency because the police feared he might have been injured in a crash. The windscreen was broken and blood was discovered at the scene.

Early yesterday afternoon, the police found the man and he was taken to the Napier Hospital for treatment of facial injuries and was later discharged.