Never help anybody.

[Peter]

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- A man who said he thought he was just helping a woman in need is accused of running an illegal taxi service.

Miami-Dade County's Consumer Services Department has slapped Rosco O'Neil with $2,000 worth of fines, but O'Neil claims he is falsely accused.

"I ain't running nothing illegal," O’Neil said.

The 78-year-old said he was walking into a Winn-Dixie to get some groceries when he was approached by a woman who said she needed a ride.

"She asked me, 'Do I do a service?'" O'Neil said. "I told her no. She said, 'I need help getting home.'"

O'Neil told the woman if she was still there when he finished his shopping, he would give her a ride. She was, so he did.

As it turned out, the woman was an undercover employee with the consumer services department targeting people providing illegal taxi services.

"She said the reason she targeted him (is because) she saw him sitting in his car for a few minutes," said Ellen Novodeletsky, O'Neil's attorney.

After O'Neil dropped off the woman, police surrounded him, issued him two citations and impounded his minivan. On top of the fees, it cost O'Neil an additional $400 to retrieve his minivan from the impound lot.

There are no prior complaints that O'Neil was providing illegal transportation for a fee.

"It's not entrapment because she didn't expect him to provide her transportation," said Sonya Perez, a spokeswoman for the consumer services department.

O'Neil claims he was just being kind and providing a ride to a lady in need.

"There's all kinds of possibilities, but the fact of this particular case, what our enforcement officers witnessed -- because we had several on the scene, plus a Miami-Dade police officer -- and all the information came back the same, that this was a business transaction," Perez said.

O'Neil said he never even discussed money until the woman insisted upon it.

"She asked me, 'How much you charging?'" O'Neil said. "I said, 'Anything you give me.' She said, 'No, I need a price.'"

[Callaway]

Do you know how much she paid him for the ride, Peter?

I couldn't find that.

[Peter]

Do you know how much she paid him for the ride, Peter?

I couldn't find that.

No idea.

[Callaway]

I gave a ride to an older woman once from Saint Louis to Saint Charles, Missouri and I finally asked for $0.25 because she so wanted to give me something.

I offered her a ride when she asked me where the bus picked people up because she walked like her feet were hurting her, but it would have been horrible to have been fined $2000 for doing it.

I never accepted money for the other rides I have given people, as best I can remember.

[Parts]

Fuck Florida I give ide to people all the time as long as it's on my way and they can put up with the mess in my truck.

NYC did a sting were they put wallets on the ground in the subway and when someone picked them up if they didn't immediately call the police or find a subway employee they arrested them.  It was not received well by the public.  Bastards don't have anything better they could allocate their resources any better   

[DirtDawg]

I swore off of picking up strangers.

Had a couple pull out a knife and try to rob me once. I felt sorry for them. It was near one hundred degrees and they were walking along a deserted stretch of road leading away from the beach, quite sunburned.

Never again!




I can't see how they can say that this man was not a victim of police entrapment.

... because the officer did not "expect" him to fall for her game?

That's bullshit!!

[Parts]

I swore off of picking up strangers.

Had a couple pull out a knife and try to rob me once. I felt sorry for them. It was near one hundred degrees and they were walking along a deserted stretch of road leading away from the beach, quite sunburned.

Never again!




I can't see how they can say that this man was not a victim of police entrapment.

... because the officer did not "expect" him to fall for her game?

That's bullshit!!

People are usually more afraid of me

[Eclair]

I swore off of picking up strangers.

Had a couple pull out a knife and try to rob me once. I felt sorry for them. It was near one hundred degrees and they were walking along a deserted stretch of road leading away from the beach, quite sunburned.

Never again!




I can't see how they can say that this man was not a victim of police entrapment.
... because the officer did not "expect" him to fall for her game?

That's bullshit!!

Well litigation in America is out of hand, we certainly know that.

Technically, even if you ran into a friend at the shopping centre and took money from them as a gratuity for giving them a lift, that could be counted as being a taxi service.  You get to the end of the ride to drop them off and they say "Dawg Man, here's $5 for petrol" just as a token offering....technically, you have just provided a paid taxi service?

That will be the next thing.

[Alex179]

The lawyers make too much fucking money off of chasing ambulances to start.   Then you have police setting up bullshit stings like this.  That is complete entrapment imo since he didn't ask for the money, but she offered just to get him arrested.   Our country spends so much money trying to find marajuana fields and then burning them down, its ridiculous.   

[Parts]

The lawyers make too much fucking money off of chasing ambulances to start.   Then you have police setting up bullshit stings like this.  That is complete entrapment imo since he didn't ask for the money, but she offered just to get him arrested.   Our country spends so much money trying to find marajuana fields and then burning them down, its ridiculous.   

 

[El]

WOW, is that unbelievably stupid (as well as horrible and contributing to the murder of altruiism, of course).  If he refused to give a price until she insisted, then right there, I can't see how they'd claim he was RUNNING a taxi service.  He woulldn't exactly make a lot of money if he let customers pay him whatever they wanted.

[ozymandias]

I swore off of picking up strangers.

Had a couple pull out a knife and try to rob me once. I felt sorry for them. It was near one hundred degrees and they were walking along a deserted stretch of road leading away from the beach, quite sunburned.

Never again!




I can't see how they can say that this man was not a victim of police entrapment.

... because the officer did not "expect" him to fall for her game?

That's bullshit!!

Ditto, unless I know them very well.