Green Cab of Madison to resume limited service following armed robberies

Matthew Clark by Matthew Clark

A Madison taxi company will resume a limited schedule of service after a string of armed robberies.

Green Cab of Madison suspended service Saturday and Sunday after four of its cab drivers were robbed at gunpoint Friday and Saturday.

“The reason for pulling the cabs off the road is 100 percent safety,” said Jodie Schmidt, one of the owners of Green Cab. “In order to not put our drivers at risk, this was a decision that had to be made.”

.@GreenCabMadison‘s fleet is parked today. After 4 muggings this weekend, the company did something drastic — shut down all of today’s rides. PD is the working the investigation, but Green Cab said until ordinances for cab companies are changed, it’s too dangerous to drive.#news3 pic.twitter.com/UEoC78OK9L

— Amy Reid (@amyreidreports) December 16, 2018

The taxi service will restart operations Monday morning at 6 a.m. Before the robberies, the company operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Until further notice, the company will stop providing rides at 7 p.m.

Company representatives are still unsure what their hours will be during the weekend.

“This is the best we can do at this point with safety being the number one concern,” she said. “We have a lot of decisions to make.”

Schmidt confirmed late Saturday night the company pulled its drivers from the road for safety precautions.

“We are concerned for the safety of our drivers and passengers,” Schmidt said.

Green Cab ended its service around 9:30 p.m. Saturday after a taxi driver was robbed at gunpoint when responding to a request for a ride near North Mills Street. It took about two hours for all of the drivers to be recalled.

On Friday, another cab driver was robbed at gunpoint near the 500 block of West Shore Drive. Another driver was also robbed Friday while responding to a request for a ride near the 5300 block of Raywood Road.

Mike Dentice, the manager of Badger Cab, said his drivers have not experienced this same violence, though another cab driver was robbed in October. Other companies did not return a request for comment on Sunday.

The series of cab robberies comes within a week of a string of carjackings in Madison.

On Saturday, a teenager was robbed at gunpoint and forced to drive to a Madison credit union. Also on Saturday night, two teenagers were allegedly getting into their car when two suspects approached them with guns. While the suspects did not get away with the car, they did get away with some property.

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