“Drive guh over deh so!”

Those were the chilling words taxi operator Andrew McLeish heard as he felt the cold metal of the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck eight years ago. The command came from the sole passenger in his motor vehicle while operating on his usual Half-Way-Tree to Mona, St Andrew route that fateful night.

His response: “Bredda, mi nah guh over deh suh enuh.”

“Alright p***y, come out a di car,” was the command that came next; to which McLeish gladly responded: “Then nuh dat yuh fi tell me long time!”

The taxi operator, who has been offering his services in the Corporate Area for the past 25 years, after dropping off all but one of his passengers, the man, with the aid of a gun, attempted to persuade him to drive to a secluded location. His aim was to take McLeish’s vehicle.

After the brief exchange that saw the passenger instructing McLeish to exit the vehicle, the taxi operator told the Jamaica Observer that he did just that.

“Mi exit and gi him di car, and him drive off wid di car,” McLeish recounted.

He continued: “I felt very traumatised because when mi come out a di car, mi see a next car behind mi and the man a look pan me like, ‘Wah gwaan?’ And mi a seh, ‘A tek di man a tek weh mi car and him have gun’. And him seh, ‘Eeh?’ When mi tek a stock, [the man I was talking to] is a police.

“True mi say him have gun now, him [the policeman] hesitant fi come out a fi him car… When him come out a fi him car now and the man [robber] turn the car and turn down the road, him buss about five shot off a di car. All now one shot nuh catch the car!” McLeish said.

Estimating the distance between the two cars at the time, the taxi driver told the Observer it was about two car lengths.

Thinking that he could give chase using the off-duty police officer’s vehicle, McLeish said: “Suh me now a guh inna fi him car and a seh, ‘Come mek we run him down!’ Di man hold him gun pan mi an’ seh, ‘Hey bwoy, don’t guh inna mi car!’ So by then, him jump inna him car and mi jump in wid him in the passenger side, [and] him turn down the road. When mi turn down the road with him, all now we not even see which part the car turn.”

McLeish said, for months, he was without a car.

“Mi never see back that deh car deh again,” he said.

Having learnt from that experience, McLeish explained that he was better prepared when another man tried to take his car a few years later.

“Mi have a next incident where mi tek up passenger weh wah tek weh di car. We reach to a place where mi seh, ‘Mi nah guh further than yah suh enuh.’ And mi just come out a di car, tek out mi key, and seh mi way pee pee [urinate]. Him come out a di car, too, and when mi a guh back inna di car him a tell mi seh fi left him down deh suh. So mi seh, ‘No, mi a guh up the road wid mi friend.’ Now him wah guh back down di road wid mi same way, mi just drive weh left him and gone. If mi never use mi head deh so now, him would a tek weh dis car too,” said McLeish.