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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-18-2016, 07:39 PM
So this guy went missing a few days ago and was found (today I think) frozen dead in a forested area. Apparently he and his brother and a girl were picked up from a popular weekday late night bar by a gipsy (unofficial, unmarked) cab driver. The driver offered them beers to celebrate his "birthday" which were drugged and caused the two brothers to pass out (the girl with them didn't accept the drink). They were then robbed and tossed out into the snow well north of Moscow above the "ring road". The girl saved one guy but the other one died (likely of hypothermia).
Hits really close to home...I didn't know the guy, but I suspect we had mutual friends. I have also lived near where he was found and have been to the club where he was picked up by the robbers.
This is the biggest risk in Moscow - foreign "gipsy" cab drivers. I had a few minor complications with these gipsy drivers in my early days in Moscow. One grabbed all the cash out of my hand as I was preparing to pay him (wasn't a lot, but it was an eye opening moment nonetheless). I had a friend who was robbed by them several times and I refused to take these cars after I lived there a while and learned about the dangers associated with them. Gipsy cab drivers are typically from the stan countries (I think the one in this case was from Azerbaijan).
Reminder to stay vigilant and look out for each other.
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/help-mis...rson-56569
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/body-of-...scow-56570
http://www.mk.ru/incident/2016/12/18/otr...-roda.html
http://www.mk.ru/incident/2016/12/18/ust...taksi.html
"...it's the quiet cool...it's for someone who's been through the struggle and come out on the other side smelling like money and pussy."
"put her in the taxi, put her number in the trash can"
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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-18-2016, 08:30 PM
According to the articles, it says the bar from which they got picked up was Crazy Daisy. The same place a forum member here was assaulted.
Glad to read police apprehended the suspects.
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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-19-2016, 03:39 AM
Quote: (12-19-2016 03:16 AM)Cool Runnings Wrote:
Quote:Quote:
This is the biggest risk in Moscow - foreign "gipsy" cab drivers.
How can you tell which Taxi's are driven by "gipsy's". Are their cabs different colors? Different style of cars? Do they tend to wear certain type of clothing? etc...
They'll likely be in some shitbox that's unmarked and they'll be eager to give you a ride for a few bucks less than the official ones.
Best bet is to use the yandex taxi app, uber, gett taxi, or similar. Order the taxi ahead of time and confirm the plate number before you get in.
"...it's the quiet cool...it's for someone who's been through the struggle and come out on the other side smelling like money and pussy."
"put her in the taxi, put her number in the trash can"
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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-19-2016, 09:02 AM
This really hits home. A couple of weeks ago something similar could have happened to me.
As I arrived in Moscow I was thinking about taking the train and metro to get to my place. It was on the other end of Moscow and I had no idea how to use public transportation, and didn't really want to.
So I talked to one of the guys in the airport holding a "Taxi" sign. Well, seems official enough.
He was friendly, spoke english well and said the price would be 5000 Rubel. I think thats too much, even for a 1h drive. I could have haggled, but my mind wasn't really in that eastern european gear yet.
So the brought me to a cab that looked pretty regular and kept the money. Which is weird, usually you pay the taxi driver. So I asked tonge in cheek if I have to pay the driver, too. He seemed a bit insulted by my implication.
Anyways, the cab driver was a sketchy chechen who couldnt speak english. I really though I made the wrong decision. He stopped on the way and met some sketchy friends, a lot of friendly "blyads" were exchanged. Wasn't really helping calming down my suspicions. All the stories I read were going through my mind. Nobody knows where I am right now. But if im getting robbed in some back alley in Moscow at least Im prepared and will deal with it.
Well, nothing happened, everyone was happy afterwards and the whole story was pointless. But Im not doing it the same way, thats for sure...
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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-19-2016, 09:39 AM
Some years back, a friend of mine was over in Germany, and got into a properly licensed cab on a rank, driven by a Turk. He sat in the front, as he normally does. As the cab was about to pull off, three other Turkish men got into the rear of the cab.
"Who are they?"
"They are my friends!"
"Fine, hope they pay, because I'm not!"
With that, my friend got out the cab, and waited for another.
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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-19-2016, 10:29 AM
Why is this in the Travel section?
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French aristocrat kid robbed and found dead in Moscow
12-19-2016, 11:48 AM
That's unfortunate to hear.
I've been ripped off by 'unofficial' taxi's in EE a couple of times.. I'm more aware and vigilant now and usually if I can, avoid using taxi's all together.
I was once dropped off in the middle of Serbia in December by a taxi driver because it was the end of his 'region' (I got it from the border of Romania because I had just missed the last train to Belgrade) and that worried me a bit because it was 10pm in the middle of winter but thankfully I was able to find a bus.