Facebook For President

When your job is to be on the roads of Las Vegas for up to 12 hours a day, you see a lot of crazy shit.  I’ve seen a lot over the years and every once in a while I’m able to snap a picture. I wish I had a camera open and ready to shoot in seconds but the sad reality is that I can only get a few.  I’ve run across the TV show COPS filming a hooker being arrested….

and seen a woman dressed in all black from head to toe as she turned heads in the middle of summer walking the streets in 110 degree temperatures.

But the one that thing that has stood out the  most, is this guy

Why did he stand out you may ask?

I see him almost everyday. I don’t only see him on The Strip. I’ve seen him as far off The Strip as as about 15 miles off, in the residential parts of town.

It’s not his hat or the flag he has stuck in it that caught my attention. No, it was his shirt

Yes, acording to this guy Facebook is the President of the world.  Everyday it’s the same clothes, hat and flag. The only thing that ever changes on this guy is some of his accessories.

Not too long ago, I finally had a chance to try to talk with him. I was on a charter and while parked outside of a store he walked by. I honked my horn and waved him over. He stopped and looked at me with a worried look on his face. I’m sure he as good reason to be worried because I’m sure many people just give him crap and make fun of him. So to try and earn his trust I held out a bottle of water and a bag of craisens (that’s all I had left in my lunch). He stopped and walked over and in a strong accent he said, “thank you” as he grabbed them. I asked if I could talk to him for a minute. I explained that I had seen him all over town and was wanting to ask a few questions so I had answers for my customers who asked about him.

He said, “no understand, no no no”. He turned and ran with his flag tucked under his arm, waterbottle and craisens in one hand and waving to me with the other.

So I have a new mission. Yes, I will not be happy until I can get this guy to talk to me. Even if it’s a broken English conversation, I won’t be happy until its done. I’m good at communicating in broken English so wish me luck. If I run into him again I’ll be sure to update you all.

I Love Award Shows

I picked up a lady headed to church. She says she nearly 80 years old and this is her first time out of her home state of Iowa. I ask how she decided Las Vegas for her first trip? She says it was where her sister wanted to go for her 85th birthday. The small chat continues for a while then she asks the big question…

I asked my bellman what the AVN is I keep hearing about. He told me he didn’t know but to make sure and ask my next cabbie because you guys know everything. So what is it?

For those of you who don’t know but want to know more than I’m going to tell you, go ahead and click HERE for a safe link to Wikipedia that will fill you in.

Not knowing what to say to this 80-year-old on her way to church I simply said, it’s an award show they do in Las Vegas every year. Little did I know she LOVED award shows. She Started in on 20 questions.

What kind of award show is it?
Well, its like the Oscars but not….

Do you think I would still be able to buy tickets?
Um… I don’t know. But I don’t think you would want to go.

Why? I love award shows. I would love to see stars walking the red carpet.
Well Ma’am these are not the stars you’re thinking of. This award show is for adult entertainment not your normal movies.

She was still a little confused so I put it as blunt as possible without describing it to her.

“Ma’am this is a porn movie award show. The people there are getting awards for being in those type of movies.”

She was shocked and turned beet red, as did I. It felt like I just got done having this talk with my own grandma. The trip was almost done at this point but I was scared that she would keep asking so I simply turned the radio up as I pulled up to the church. I quickly jumped to open her door. As I helped her out she hands me the money and simply said “sorry”, as she quickly shuffles into the church.

I think this ride alone trumps all of the in cab break ups, fights and shady deals as one of the most awkward rides I’ve ever had…

$20 to go…

First call of a VERY slow morning was a no go. Normally I get pissed when that happens but this time it turned out to be the best call I’ve had in a while.

I pull up to this little dive bar in North Las Vegas where I pick up at least ten times a week. They never go far but a ride is a ride. The bartender pokes his head out and asks me to give him a minute and he’ll get the guy out soon. It was slow that morning so I sat and waited.

Soon the door flew open and a guy comes stumbling out. He holds the railing on the walkway heading to the cab. As the rail ends he makes a leap of faith toward the cab and falls up against it. He opens the door and leans in asking in a the most slurred drunken voice I’ve heard in a while, “how much does it cost NOT to go home?” I said, “I don’t know, if you want to give me $10 for wasting my time that would be cool”. He said, “no problem” and reaches in his wallet and started digging for the money. The bartender was standing behind him the whole time and tells him, “NO, you’re cut off. If you think you’re going to stay here you’re paying him $20 or I’m not letting you back in”. The guy got pissed and had a few choice words for the bartender but promptly handed me a $20 bill.

He then told the bartender to take him back in and stop being a jackass.

Off they went and so did I with the meter shorted but my pocket a little fatter. So if anyone is ever wondering how much it costs to not go home, it’s now $20 if you call my cab.

Irish Rage

I pull up to a hotel that has the hottest night club in Vegas and get one guy going to another hotel on the opposite end of the strip. I ask how he’s doing and get a response I didn’t expect. In a heavy Irish accent he says,”I’ll be fine once I kick his ass”. I laugh thinking it may be a joke but after he goes in to the story about this guy stealing his woman, and so on and so forth, I know he’s really going kick ass.

About half way there he hands me a one hundred-dollar bill and asks if I could wait for him . I told him of course, but if he’s not back down in 30 minutes I’m leaving and keeping the change. He assured me that it would only take him about 10 minutes and he was ok with that deal.

As I got closer to the hotel we hit some traffic. He really started to get impatient and asked if he could just jump out and meet me in front when he’s done. I told him he has to let himself out and I’ll meet him wherever. He then wrote my cab number down and off he ran. Like a wild animal I watched him weave in and out of the cars until he found a side door to go in for his hotel.

I kept going until I got to the front of his hotel. I started to tweet about this guy and before I knew it, he was back in my cab.

Sweaty as hell he said, “take me back please”, referring to the club. Once again, I had to laugh. I asked how it went.

He said, “he’s going to think twice before doing this shit again. After kicking his ass I took his room key and tossed him out the room. He’s not on the room so he can’t get back in”.

He laughed his ass off the whole way back to the club.

I’m Back… I think…

I’ve been avoiding writing a new post for some reason. Life has been a little crazy with the family, work and just life in general, as my Twitter followers may know, but enough is enough. Here is something I found while looking up some pics for my next post.  Guess what it is without going to the blog I got it from

Hit and Run Or Assault

As my twitter followers know, I had another incident at work last week. This one pushed me over the edge and got me to try to get local media involved in order to better protect myself and fellow hacks in Las Vegas. It started with a typical fare pick up at a resort where I was taking the second half of a large group to the outlets.  As I was pulling down the driveway I had a van next to me. For no apparent reason he started to come into my lane. This is common so I tapped my horn a few times hoping he would correct himself. Instead he continued to try to run me up the curb into the planter. I laid on my horn as I pulled up to the stop light.

The driver of the van opened his door, jumped out and started to run to my driver’s door. I thought I was ok because our cabs have auto lock doors when you put them in gear. Little did I know mine were not working that day.  He grabbed my door handle and flung it open.  He was yelling at me asking why I didn’t stop at the stop sign behind us. I couldn’t help but laugh and said,

“I’m sorry my stop wasn’t good enough for you but what gives you the right to come at me the way you did?”

Well, I guess that wasn’t the best way to handle it because he responded by saying, “Fine! I’ll come at you like this”, as he took a swing at me. I leaned away from it and he missed. I was able to grab my door and slam it shut before he had time for another swing. I locked the door, hit the panic button on my camera and radioed into dispatch what was happening.

By now my fare is freaking out and screaming bloody murder. My dispatcher didn’t make things any better. When I called in, the dispatcher couldn’t get my cab number right if her life depended on it.  It took 5 times for her to finally repeat the proper number. I chalked it up to the crappy radios the company put in not too long ago. Then I told her what just happened and gave her a description of  the man, his van & his license plate number. Once again I repeated myself 5 times before she repeated the proper plate number.  At this point I’m getting pissed. I’ve given this person who is supposed to be there to take information from me a lot of things I couldn’t write and I was sure that none of it was taken properly.

After he drives off I pulled my cab to a side road and parked.  My Fare was scared but I was trying to explain that I needed a statement from them.  But just as one of them was willing to do it my dispatcher said that the police ran the plate and it came back as invalid. She repeated the number back to me and to no surprise  she had written it down wrong. I remembered all but one letter and knew it was one of 2 options. I gave her the right plate number with both possibilities and waited to hear back. She then came back and said that both Metro and the Taxi Authority (TA) were not going to respond but that the TA wanted me to go to their office when I was done so they can do the paperwork needed. My fare had enough and hailed a cab out of there.

I couldn’t believe that this lady caused two different police agencies to not respond. Twenty minutes later, a Metro Traffic Officer pulled up and I found out why they didn’t come. He was sent for a Hit and Run car vs car crash. Nothing in the call said there was an assault. He asked if TA was going to handle it and after hearing they were, he pulled off. When my Supervisor found out that the call said nothing about the assault he called the TA and filled them in on what was really happening. They still didn’t want to send anyone out and wanted me to just come to the office still.

So off I went…

Big Business Dies

Cab drivers are called all kinds of things but the last thing I thought we would be called is loyal customers.  Most cabbies I know are looking for the latest and greatest when it comes to places to go. But one place all cabbies can agree on is what convenience store to stop at for all our needs.  What’s the name of this store? I couldn’t tell you if my life depended on it and I’m sure I’m not the only one.  This was the only store that was shown to me on my first day of “training”. I was told, “you can piss anywhere but if you need anything else come here. They’ve got it”. On my first day on my own I had to go in and see what the hell my trainer was talking about and the best way to describe it is WalMart in a broom closet. It had everything from cloths to slots.

I started going there everyday to get my water bottle and news paper.  The staff found out that I was a cabbie and let me know that if there is ever a line just grab what I need and leave the money in the counter. If I need change just wave the bill so they can see it and they will have it ready. JACKPOT!!! I can walk in and out in under 60 sec and not have to wait  the average 5 mins at the 7-11 store up the street. So of course almost every cabbie stops by there.  Over the years about 5 other shops tried to open there and were gone within a year. Even the cafe that called themselves “Taxi Stop” went under. Yes the no name store we all go to even has a kitchen and serves food.

About 6 months ago I noticed that another convenient store was going in, but this one had big money backing it. It was 7-11 going in about 300 feet away. I could tell that the guys at our shop were worried at first but started to change things up.  They expanded their menu of fresh “grab and go” food and made sure that the restroom was always in working order. On the opening day of the 7-11 there were big signs and flags and every grand opening gimic you could imagine. The only thing the 7-11 was missing was the customers.  I think every time I drove by for nearly two weeks the parking lot was empty.  Over time, a few out of state cars were parked over there and a cab or two, but for the most part it still looks like this everyday.  I took this picture about two weeks ago (5 months after opening)

Big Business

Local Business

Hookers And John’s

I was sitting at a stop light waiting to turn left when my back door opens and someone jumps in.  I look in the rearview mirror and see what looks like the typical Vegas hooker. Before I could say anything she yelled, “GO! I have a few hundred-dollar bills and one’s yours if you just get me out of here”. Before I could do anything, I looked up right as a guy on his phone jumped on to my cab yelling, “NO, STOP! I have the cops on the phone. she just robbed me and they are on their way”.

This is nothing new for cabbies in Vegas. Every night we see hookers running out of hotels while being chased and hear them in the back of our cabs talking about the “last sucker” they rolled while he was showering or just not looking.  Personally, I think it’s funny. I mean if you are desperate enough to get a hooker and dumb enough to think you can trust her, then you deserve everything you get.

While the guy is yelling at me and trying to get me to talk to the cops, I see the hooker desperately trying to get out of my cab with no luck. I keep my child locks on so people can’t just open the door and run or into traffic at the airport. She starts going crazy again and even offers the $200 to just take her away from there.

I tell both of them that I’m not getting involved and that I’m just going to get off the main street and let her out. They can deal with it from there.  So I do just that, and watch as she tries to get into 3 other cabs. I signal for them not to taker her and they just lock their doors. She then runs into the hotel I pulled into so I pull off.  While waiting at the stop light to leave I see the two of them running back across the street. Just then a Las Vegas Metro Police Unit comes flying toward them. The cop stops and gets the hooker into custody.

Before the light could turn green my phone is ringing. It’s my dispatch telling me to stick around because Metro is going to want to talk to me.  I hang up and pull across the street to where they are and my phone rings again. This time It’s Metro’s Dispatch asking me to search my car for a wallet and $200 while I wait for an officer to come over to me.

To make a long story short, nothing was in my cab. I had to write a statement regarding this and they found the $200 under the girls WIG!!! I was laughing my ass of when I saw that.

If you take anything from this I hope it’s that you shouldn’t pick up a hooker. If you still feel that you need to pay for sex, there are legal brothels just outside of town.

My First EDC Ride

Electric Daisy Carnival or EDC for short was a blast to work. The wife and I went shopping the day before I went to work and I made sure to stock up on glow sticks and other glow toys which are big at Raves. I got to work and decked my cab out with glow toys all over it and hit the road. It didn’t take long. Within the first hour I had my first ride out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway which is where EDC was being held. With DJ BL3ND “CLub Mix” filling the cab with beats, it didn’t take long for my fare to grab a few of the glow sticks that I had hanging in the cab and the party was on.  I had heads bobbing  and hands flying with streaks from the glow sticks in my rearview mirror the whole way out.  As I pulled up to the Speedway they asked why the rides in Vegas weren’t always this fun and asked why I wasn’t going to EDC. I simply said, “If I were there how boring would your cab ride have been?” They jumped out wished me a good night and headed to the party.

That left me sitting in line at the Speedway hoping to get a ride out of there. It was still kind of early but there were people leaving so I stayed to grab a ride out.  I could hear the music and could see the lights but that wasn’t what entertained us while we waited, no that was left up to this guy

world's only juggling cab driver Courtesy of @dribbleglass "Pulse of Vegas Blog"

 

This is a Co-worker of mine Daniel Mann who entertains his fares from point A to point B and then some. He happened to be at the Speedway and was giving the drivers a show.

After this, it felt like the line moved in light speed and I was next up. I got my ride out of there and it felt like deja vu. They were even going back to the same hotel. So far nothing crazy just a different type of fare than I would normally get, but that was while the night was still young.

you can see more from Dan The Mann by googleing “world’s only juggling cab driver”, or searching you tube “Taxi Rodeo Vegas”, “Elivis Cab Vegas” and much more

What’s EDC Las Vegas

Vegas gets all kinds of events throughout the year. This year we were lucky enough to get Electric Daisy Carnival for the first time ever. This 3 day event brings the worlds best DJ’s together for a party that filled the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Inside you found everything from carnival rides to lighting and fire effects that goes to the music energizing around 80,000 people a night. Here’s a look inside the party courtesy of Erik Kabik (@erik_kabik) of the Las Vegas office for Retna and a couple from Robin Leach ( @Robin_Leach) and DJ KATarina (@DJ_KATarina) one of the many kickass DJ’s at the party.

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I don’t know about you but that looks like a blast. Luckily this event signed a 5 year contract and even our great Mayor Oscar Goodman declared that week “Electric Daisy  Carnival Week”. So it looks like this party is here to stay and Ill be sharing a few of my stories coming up