Late last Thursday evening, a suspect jumped in a cab at Fourth and Market Streets in San Francisco, asking for a ride to Oakland. The suspect, who confessed during the ride that he had smoked PCP, decided he'd rather drive the car himself right in the middle of the Bay Bridge.
As KRON4 newsman and local treasure Stanley Roberts reports, 34-year-old would-be carjacker Ambrose Charles Walker III got in the cab around 11:15 p.m. on February 13th and can be seen on the cab's security footage acting delirious and confused about his destination. He first asks to go to Oakland, then to St. Luke's Hospital, then an unidentified bus station. He also claims that his asthma is acting up before confessing that he "just smoked some weed with some sherm in it." Sherm, if you weren't paying attention during those DARE classes, is marijuana laced with PCP.
After copping to the drug use, things took a turn: Walker nearly passed out before jolting back to life and commencing to freak the hell out, pushing the cabbie out of the driver's side door and trying to take the wheel. Luckily for everyone on the Bay Bridge that night, Walker couldn't figure out how to start the Toyota Prius, which gave some good samaritans the opportunity to block the cab and keep Walker from taking off.
KRON4's report is below, the freakout begins around the 1:30 mark:
The cab driver was apparently less worried about his vehicle than Walker's safety. As he told KRON4, he kept Walker in the cab for fear he would get out and jump off the bridge. A few other bystanders arrived to film the incident, which provided the basis for Stanley's People Behaving Badly segment on Monday night. One bystander pretended to be a police officer in order to subdue Walker until the actual patrol cars could arrive.
Walker was booked for carjacking. Thankfully, no one was harmed (or harmed themselves) in the incident and the cab operator would like to extend free cab rides to all of the passersby that stopped to help out.
Previously: All of Stanley Roberts' magical reporting on SFist
[KRON4]
