Taxi cab drivers say they aren't surprised crooks tried robbing other drivers in southeast and central Baltimore on Monday.
Baltimore police officers say cab robberies aren't a huge problem in the city. Still cabbies claim it's something that's always on their minds when they're preparing for their next ride.
In a busy city, a sea of yellow cabs is still constant.
"Taxi cabs service every part of the city. So they're in good areas and bad areas all the time," Dwight Kines, the vice president of Transdev - over the yellow and checkered cabs in the city, said.
...and those 'bad' areas are on cabbies' minds.
"We're very concerned about this because we have a specific group or occupation that is being targeted during early morning hours," Lt. Jarron Jackson, with Baltimore Police, said.
"In the early morning? They didn't even have $20," Deepak Sharma, a six-year cab driver, asked.
He says it's scary.
"I don't know what these people are thinking about the cab driver because a cab driver doesn't even have $100 all day working," Sharma said.
According to police, the robberies may be connected, but robbers targeted cabs at random.
"In one of these instances, the suspect used their vehicle to block the cab, actually in traffic and then robbed the owner/occupant," Jackson said.
Despite the incidents, Kines says cabbies are safer than they were 20 years ago.
"Most of the transactions that occur in a taxi cab these days are either done through credit card or debit card or voucher. So the majority of drivers carry very little cash," he said.
While his drivers weren't victims, Kines says he's still sending memos to all of his employees.
None of the cabbies were hurt in the robberies, but for Sharma it's a constant reminder and reality of his job.
"Yeah it is pretty -- you worry about it because you come out every day and you have to deal with all kinds of people and you don't know who's sitting back there. It's pretty scary," he said.
Officers need help in the investigation.
As of now, they haven't been able to find surveillance video of those robbers.
