It’s never fun to be at the mercy of a cab driver that knows an area much better than you. Even here in America, cab drivers from New York and Las Vegas have been known to take unsuspecting tourists on the LONG, EXPENSIVE route to their destination. So what happens when you feel like you’ve been similarly duped abroad? Well, six American tourists in Antigua decided to take the law into their own hands.
The group took a $50 tour from the Carnival Victory, which they assumed would bring them back to where they started. However, the cabbie told them their tour ended at the beach (only once they reached the beach), and that if they wanted a ride back to the ship it would run them another $50. The group refused to pay, so the cabbie drove them to the police station where a fight broke out and two officers were allegedly injured.
The six were charged with assault and malicious damage, were released on $5,000 bail each and are expected to be in appear in court tomorrow.
This could really end up being a black eye on Antigua’s record. For an economy based so heavily on tourism, it’s foolish to make such a big deal out of dispute that was clearly a tourist scam. With that said, we don’t know how the group acted once they arrived at the police station, or if they initiated the confrontation. One thing’s for certain: it’s not good for Antigua’s reputation as a tourist destination.
The parts left out is are that the police station was not marked as such, the police were in plainclothes, and did not identify themselves, and the driver (who had called his police friends) attempted to drive them into a gated area, away from public view, which was usually restricted to official police vehicles.
I lived in Antigua for a few years, and none of this came as a surprise to me, that’s how they behave, since most tourists are too intimidated and frightened to object to being ripped off.
Thanks for the information! That doesn’t come as a surprise — since the law enforcement in some of these cruise destinations is rather casual and unprofessional. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Same thing happened in St.Lucia. Cab driver agreed to $100 for a tour around then when it ended he doubled the price to $200. We tried to object but then he said . ” I know where you are and I know where your children are” so sadly we paid.