SURREY — An Indo-Canadian taxi driver was stabbed and robbed in Whalley early Sunday morning.
Shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday, Satnam Bahia was sitting in his taxi outside the 7 Eleven at the intersection of 144th Street and 108th Avenue in Surrey and reading a newspaper, reported CTV news.
A young man smoking a cigarette rapped on his window to see whether he was available for a cab ride. He indicated he was, and the man gestured to his cigarette, indicating that he would get in when he finished smoking.
Less than 10 minutes later, Bahia was bleeding from three stab wounds. The young man had stolen everything Bahia had on his person, including the keys to his taxi, which he was still sitting in, though now at the intersection of 132nd Street and 105A Avenue.
Bahia, a driver for Surrey Metro Taxi, said he became somewhat suspicious of his passenger at the beginning of the trip, when the young man sat in the passenger’s seat and pulled down the sun visor.
“I had a bit of a suspicion about that, right? Why’s he putting that down?” Bahia said. “I realized after all this happened that he pulled it down to cover the camera.”
Bahia told CTV News he think the passenger was planning to stab him all along, but the two had actually been having a fairly normal conversation for most of the trip.
“He started out pretty friendly,” the driver said of his passenger. “He asked me to go to a certain destination and I took him and when we got to the stop there I thought he was going into his pants to get some payment, right? But he kind of turned — he was sitting right beside me — and he lunged at me with a knife.”
Bahia put up his arms to defend himself. He ended up with wounds from the 3-inch blade in his hand, his arm, and in his side, just above the belt. After a brief trip to the hospital, Bahia is going to be fine.
The assailant fled.
“I didn’t even know where he disappeared to,” Bahia said.
He said there’s really nothing that could have been done to prevent the attack. Taxis, as a business, rely on trust in one’s fellow human beings, he said. The vast majority of passengers are good, but there are a handful out there who would hurt their drivers, and there’s no way to know if one of them is getting into your cab, he said.
Police are investigating the stabbing. Bahia said he hopes his assailant is caught and punished.
“He’s got to be put away for a least a few years, right?” he said. “So he realizes that he can’t do this kind of thing.”
Police tried to track the robber with service dogs but didn’t find him. He was last seen running west on 105A Avenue, The robber is thin, has a dark complexion and wore black pants and a black hoodie, with the hood up.
Police ask anyone with information to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502.
