CALGARY – A Calgary woman is warning others after she says she was sexually assaulted while taking a cab alone over the weekend.
“I was just really scared, I just thought I was going to get raped.”
The 22-year old caught a taxi from the Palliser Hotel around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday.
She told Global News the entire cab ride was uncomfortable and said the driver asked her all sorts of personal questions.
“I kind of felt weird, but I thought maybe I was over-thinking it… then when we got into Riverbend he was like, ‘I’m going to go get us something to eat or drink…and I was like what? I just want to go home’,” said Samantha.
She said the driver went into a Petro Canada and bought two iced teas. He took her home, but turned off his meter so she couldn’t tell how much she owed.
“I asked him how much I owed him and he said, ‘how much do you want to give me?’ … I said, ‘I just want to give you what I owe,” she said.
“I didn’t know what to do…i was scared…and I’m so tiny that he could hit me and I would be done.”
She broke down as she described what happened next.
“Then he drove me into an alleyway and i kept saying please don’t do this cause i knew something was going to happen,” she said, crying.
“He got out of the cab and said, ‘get out of the cab there’s cameras in here’…he opened the door and grabbed my arm and pulled me out and started kissing me,” she said.
“We ended up slipping and i just got up and ran as fast as i could home.”
After escaping she called police.
Investigators were able to identify a possible suspect after pulling CCTV video of the driver from the Petro Canada.
The city is also investigating and will suspend the driver if he is identified as a licensed cab driver.
“We don’t want public in any fear that we have drivers out there enacting in criminal activity of any kind,” said Marc Halat of the City of Calgary.
Normally there is video inside of a cab, but it is only available for three days after an incident.
Samantha says the driver knows where she lives and that has left her shaken.
“I keep thinking what would happen if I would have made it out alive…scary… but I’m grateful I’m ok.”
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