Taxi drives off forgetting Norwegian tourist at petrol station in Thailand

A Norwegian man took a taxi from Trat to Bangkok yesterday afternoon. After stopping at a petrol station in Chon Buri province to buy snacks, the driver drove off without him. The cabby drove 60 kilometres before realising his passenger had vanished.

A Thai woman at the petrol station on the Setthakit Chon Buri – Baan Bueng Road saw the forlorn-looking tourist and asked if he needed help. He told her that his taxi driver drove off with his passport, mobile phone and other belongings and left him stranded. She helped him report the situation to officers at Mueang Chon Buri Police Station.

He told the woman that he came from Koh Chang island in Trat province and planned on meeting his friend at a hotel in the Nana area of Bangkok. However, after stopping to buy food at a convenience store, the taxi left him behind.

As the police arrived at the petrol station, so did the runaway taxi driver. The driver wound down his window and told police he was ashamed to say he had forgotten his passenger.

The taxi driver said he went to the bathroom while the Norwegian tourist went to buy snacks. He said when he got back into the car, he couldn’t see the man in his mirror but assumed he lay down on the backseat and went to sleep. The driver admitted that he didn’t check.

It wasn’t until the driver reached the Lat Krabang Toll Booth in Bangkok and needed the toll money that he realised his passenger had disappeared. So he turned around and headed back to Chon Buri.

After waiting quite some time, the tourist continued his journey with the same taxi driver and arrived safely at his destination in Bangkok, albeit a little later than planned.

In March, a taxi driver left his passenger at a petrol station in Ubon Ratchathani province in northeast Thailand. The passenger said the driver robbed him of his passport, tablet, phone and other belongings and also overcharged him for the trip which was never completed. Annoyed, he filed a police complaint.

When the police finally tracked down the taxi driver, he said he never drove off from the petrol station but was stuck in the toilet with a bad tummy.