Auckland taxi-driver robbed at knifepoint

Press, 27 December 1985, Page 4

Auckland taxi-driver robbed at knifepoint

PA Auckland An Auckland taxi-driver, robbed at knifepoint of $3OO early yesterday, has given up her night shift after two robberies and two assaults. Susan Pountley picked up two young passengers about' 1.30 a.m. and drove to a Mount Eden address where one of them lunged at her with a knife. “I just saw the fast movement out of the comer of my eye and said, ‘You take it man...’” Miss Pountley said.

The man grabbed a folder containing about $3OO in takings, a calculator and log sheets before running off with his companion through the grounds of a nearby school. It was the second time she had been robbed in a year driving the night shift. The previous time she had been driving on Easter Thursday. This time, a Christmas night pick-up ended in violence. Miss Pountley, aged 30, has now given up her 5 p.m.

to 5 a.m. shift. “It is just not worth it — the amount of abuse you get when you are providing a service,” she said last evening. She will start working the day shift today. Last week she was assaulted by a man in Otara who grabbed her in the taxi. “He was a hell of a lot stronger than I was, but he did not want money, man,” Miss Pountley said. Two other taxi-drivers came to her aid that night.