IT was just a regular taxi ride from Orchard Road to Sengkang and then on to Tampines.
But Miss Fiona Lee, 22, claims the trip ended up costing her $202.60.
The meter read $22.60.
The sales coordinator claimed that she accidentally handed two $100 notes in addition to a $10 note and the coins to the taxi driver as payment.
The driver, she claims, gave her $8 in change.
The cabby has denied that he had pocketed the extra money, insisting that he received only $10 notes from his passenger.
The incident took place on 15 Jul, Miss Lee's birthday.
BIRTHDAY HONGBAO
That morning, her parents gave her two red packets, as they do every year, containing six $100 notes. She kept the notes in her wallet.
In the evening, she met her friends for dinner in Ngee Ann City.
The bill was settled by her friend, whom she duly repaid in cash before they left the restaurant.
Could she have accidentally used the notes there?
Miss Lee said this was unlikely.
'The restaurant was very well lit, so I am certain I didn't give her any of those $100 notes by mistake,' she said.
She and the friend took a cab together at 10.30pm after the dinner.
The cabby dropped her friend off in Sengkang before taking her home to Tampines.
It was only after she had reached home and taken a bath, Miss Lee said, that she opened her wallet and discovered two $100 notes missing. By then, it was about 11.40pm.
She called the friend 'just to make sure' she did not give the notes to her accidentally. Her friend said that the missing notes were not with her.
'I am 100 per cent sure that I gave the driver those $100 notes,' Miss Lee said.
She put her mistake down to two things: Her own carelessness and that it was dark in the taxi.
The $10 note is red in colour, while the $100 note is orange. The $100 note is longer by about 2cm.
Miss Lee said: 'I don't blame the driver for the original mistake. It was my own fault.'
However, she is upset that the driver has denied taking the $100 notes. She also took issue with the cab company, which could not contact the driver for about 10 hours.
She said she called the company's hotline shortly after calling her friend, but the taxi company gave a reply only at 10am the next day.
When contacted, the cab company said that its driver has given a written statement to the company claiming that he received only $22.60 from Miss Lee, not $202.60.
The company also said that the driver did not answer calls to his handphone shortly after the incident because he had a passenger on board.
On 21 Jul, after some consideration, Miss Lee lodged a police report over the matter.
'This experience has made me so disappointed with cabs that I will try to avoid taking them from now on,' she said.
This article was first published in The New Paper on July 26.
