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Journalism of Courage
What was meant to be the beginning of an exciting journey in India turned into an unsettling experience for Dustin, a travel vlogger from the United States. On his first day in Kolkata, shortly after landing in the city, Dustin found himself harassed and scammed by a local taxi driver and his alleged accomplice.
The incident was recorded and later shared on his YouTube channel in a video titled “Taxi Driver in Kolkata Tried to Cheat and Threaten Me.”
Upon his arrival at the airport, Dustin booked a local taxi instead of booking an Uber. He informed the driver clearly that he wanted to go to the Hotel Great Western on Park Street. However, instead of heading to his destination, the driver drove him nearly 15 kilometers in the wrong direction, towards a different hotel named The Western in Rajarhat.
In the video, Dustin is seen confronting the driver. “I showed you the hotel first, we agreed to this, and then you took me to the wrong hotel,” he says. Initially, the driver demanded Rs 700 for the ride. But when he refused to pay after being dropped at the incorrect hotel, the driver increased the fare instead of apologising, demanding Rs 900 to take him to his hotel in Park Street.
“Okay, sir, it will be Rs 900 to Park Street now,” the driver said. However, Dustin stood his ground and insisted he would only pay the agreed amount of Rs 700. As the argument escalated, another man, identified by his red shirt, entered the vehicle and sat beside the first driver. He initially appeared to mediate the situation, but soon escalated the encounter with a disturbing threat.
“I have connections with the mafia, I’ll drag him to a lonely place and break his bones,” the man in red was heard saying in Bengali.
Watch the video here:
Eventually, the two men convinced Dustin to switch to another taxi headed toward his actual destination. However, before letting him go, the second man demanded an additional Rs 100 for “parking and petrol,” bringing the total amount Dustin was forced to pay to Rs 800. In Bengali, he was also overheard telling the new driver that he would receive only Rs 400.
“I should’ve been at the hotel by now, but I’ll probably be in this taxi for an hour and 30 minutes,” Dustin says in the video. In the video’s caption, Dustin warned others to avoid similar situations. “From this point forward, I will never use random taxi drivers from the airport, always Uber. I didn’t plan to make any videos from the airport as I was already tired from travelling,” he wrote.
He also noted that Uber quoted between Rs 500 and Rs 600 for the same trip. “I agreed to Rs 700 for convenience, but this is just too much,” he wrote, mentioning that he was unexpectedly charged a Rs 150 parking fee just five minutes into the ride.
“I’ve had a great time in India so far. This won’t make me hate the country, it’s just something you deal with in taxis and airports in many places,” he said towards the end of the video.
