Taxi Thief Gives Passenger a Ride Home

A thief who stole a taxi van Friday found he had an unexpected companion--a 93-year-old passenger he hadn’t noticed in a rear seat--and so considerately gave the man a ride home, police said.

After Bill Riggs, who has been driving for San Fernando Valley Checker Cab for six years, helped a 93-year-old passenger into his blue-and-white-checked van at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration Medical Center, he asked the man to wait while he used the hospital’s restroom.

When Riggs returned, van and passenger were gone.

“The funny part of this thing is that the guy didn’t realize this old-timer was in the van until he’s down the road,” said Sgt. Doug Laird of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

“He asks him what he was doing and the man says, ‘I’m getting a ride home.’ So the guy asks him where he lives and drives him home.”

The thief later crossed paths with another Checker van driver, who recognized the stolen vehicle and gave chase. But the thief escaped, Laird said.

The van was later found abandoned in the back yard of a Van Nuys home, police said.

“He delivered the guy home safely,” Laird said. “A criminal with a heart, maybe.”