Metropark Cab Driver Carjacked to Trenton

A Woodbridge cab driver got the shock of his life Tuesday when a fare he picked up at Metropark turned into a gun-toting carjacker by the time he reached New Brunswick.

The cab driver, who works for Scooters Taxi Service, picked up a man at the Iselin train station around 1 pm who wanted to be driven to New Brunswick, normally a $35 fare.

When the cab driver reached New Brunswick, the fare pulled out a gun and told him to start driving to Trenton, said Valerie Finaldi of Scooters.

"When they got to New Brunswick, that's when it happened," Finaldi said. "The fare said, 'you'll go where I tell you to go,' and he pulled out a gun."

Needless to say, the cab driver had an unnerving 25-mile ride to Trenton down Route 1.

When the driver arrived in Trenton, the carjacker told him to turn over his cash and get out, and he sped off in the vehicle. 

The cab, Finaldi said, still hasn't been found.

The good news is that the cab driver wasn't injured in the carjacking.

"I spoke to him this morning," Finaldi said of the cab driver, who lives in Woodbridge. "He's shaken up, but he's unharmed."

The driver ran away from the cab and was helped by "a good Samaritan," Finaldi said.

He gave the driver "his cell phone to make a call. He called 911 and told them about the carjacking," she said.

"State troopers came right away."

The driver, she said, was "calm and cool. He was stressed, but he kept his head."

Authorities spent time going over the details of the carjacking with the driver. Apparently there has been another carjacking in the Middlesex County area that is similar to the one that happened to the driver on Tuesday, according to Finaldi.

"The police asked him questions. He didn't get home until midnight," Finaldi said.

The driver will be questioned again and will be looking at mug shots Thursday. "If he can't identify anyone, they are going to do a police sketch," Finaldi said.

The question about who has jurisdiction over the carjacking is open to debate. 

While the driver picked up the carjacker in Metropark in the Iselin section of Woodbridge, the actual carjacking didn't happen in the township, said. Woodbridge Police Captain Roy Hoppock.

The crook didn't pull the gun out until Edison or New Brunswick, depending upon whom you talk to, so Woodbridge police don't believe that they have any involvement with the carjacking.

Edison police have been handling the investigation, along with NJ State Police and other law enforcement authorities.

The Scooters cab that was stolen is a white van with a designation of #24 on it. The license plate number is OXY7479, according to information on Scooters Facebook page.

Follow Woodbridge Patch on Facebook, Twitter and sign up for the daily newsletter.