Three Israelis heading to Lakewood found themselves stranded for hours in middle of the night after the taxi they took from the airport ripped them off, TLS has learned.

The visitors grabbed a cab from Kennedy Airport on Thursday night before Yom Tov, and told the driver they were heading to Lakewood, NJ, and gave the driver the address, with the zip code. The taxi driver told them it would be $165, and began driving.

However, after beginning to drive, the cab driver told the foreigners – a father and two sons – that he needed $295, and continued driving, until he arrived in middle of West New York, New Jersey.

At that point, the driver stopped, and told them this is where they needed to go, and dropped them off with their luggage, leaving them stranded, taking their $295.

Unfamiliar with the area, or Lakewood, the foreigners called their host in Lakewood, Reb Shraga Weber, telling him they were on the block at their destination. But after driving up and down the block for about an hour searching for them, they realized something was wrong, and together with Reb Weber figured out that they were over an hour from Lakewood.

Police were called, and located the stranded Israelis, approximately 3 AM, and brought them to police headquarters.

“I’d like to thank the police for keeping them safe,” Reb Shraga Weber told TLS. “They were very helpful.”

Reb Weber also thanked Reb Refoel Kanig, who drove out from Lakewood in middle of the night to pick them up from the police station.

[TLS]

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