CABBY Cheong Heng Wah always thought that cases of taxi drivers hit by thieves were few and far between.
The cabby of 1 1/2 years never imagined it would happen to him. But last Tuesday, his luck ran out.
Not only did he lose his valuables, he also hurt his knee and had to be hospitalised for two days.
Mr Cheong, 45, recalled the incident when interviewed at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) last Thursday .
Around 2am that night, he was driving along Toa Payoh Lor 8.
'I was deciding whether to end my shift, top up fuel or go a few more rounds, when I saw a man flag my cab,' he said.
'From far, I saw that he was walking back and forth along the side of the road.'
After Mr Cheong pulled up beside the man, the latter opened the front passenger door and asked in Hokkien the cost of the fare from Toa Payoh to Ang Mo Kio.
'I told him about $10 (including midnight surcharge) and he said he did not have enough money,' Mr Cheong said.
'So I asked if I should wait for him to withdraw money. He said no. Then I offered to drive him home to get money, but he also said no.'
Mr Cheong said the man, a young medium-built Chinese man, then started closing the door, and the cabby was about to drive off.
Suddenly, the man pulled open the door again, grabbed Mr Cheong's waist pouch - which was on the front passenger seat - and ran off.
Mr Cheong said the pouch, which his wife had bought for him from Japan, contained $220 in cash, a coin pouch with about $5 worth of coins, foreign currency totalling about $200, two handphones worth about $700, his house keys and personal cards.
After the man ran off, Mr Cheong unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the taxi to give chase.
In his haste, he did not even close the door.
He chased the thief into some HDB blocks.
About 200m into the chase, Mr Cheong tripped and fell and landed hard on his right knee. He also suffered abrasions on his left elbow, which he used to break his fall.
Mr Cheong said: 'I saw a wake at a nearby block, so I ran there and asked for help. Someone lent me a handphone, and I called the police.
'I described the thief to some people at the wake, and asked them to help me look out for him.'
He said he was told by the police officer who answered his call to go back to his taxi and wait for the police there.
Commotion
But as he was walking back to his taxi, Mr Cheong heard a commotion. When he turned around, he saw people from the wake chasing someone.
He found out later that they had spotted the thief, who was wearing a white T-shirt and light-blue bermudas. They gave chase but lost him.
After giving his statement to the police and handing over his taxi to the relief driver, Mr Cheong returned to his mother's home at Toa Payoh Lorong 5 at about 4am.
All this time, he felt a nagging pain in his right knee, but thought it was just a bad bruise.
At 5am, he returned to Lorong 8 and walked around for 45 minutes, hoping to spot the thief. The pain then got worse, so he decided to return to his mother's home.
'I didn't sleep at all. At about 8.30am, as my brother-in-law was going to work, I asked him to drop me off at home.'
By then, the pain in his knee had worsened. So, with his wife, he took a taxi to the A&E at TTSH.
An X-ray showed that his right knee was fractured.
The police confirmed the case and investigations are ongoing.
