Cabby: I smoked out perps
His two passengers promised him a huge tip — but cabbie Patrick Omeje refused to go anywhere until they explained why plumes of smoke were spewing out of the back seat.
“I said to them, ‘Are you trying to blow up my cab?’ Omeje, 43, told The Post. “The robber kept yelling, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ but I said ‘I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.’”
Omeje did not realize it at the time, but according to police, his two passengers — Robert Krieg, 42, and John Gregg, 32 — had just robbed the Banco Popular up the block, and were trying to use his taxi as a getaway.
The duo had already successfully pulled off that stunt three other times at Manhattan banks, but — as The Post reported yesterday — Omeje’s refusal to cooperate put an end their antics.
Krieg first hailed Omeje’s cab just after 11 a.m. on East 25th Street and Second Avenue.
“He was dressed up in a nice suit — he really looked like a gentleman,” Omeje said. “I helped him put two large black bags in the trunk. I assumed he was going to go to the airport, but as I started to drive off he told me we had to wait for his friend.”
Krieg assured him it would only be “two to three minutes,” and that “he was going to give me a big tip,” Omeje said. “So I said, ‘No problem.’”
Soon Omeje noticed “this guy running, running hard — then I realized he was running for my cab.”
It was Gregg, according to cops.
“He opened the door and started yelling [to go],” Omeje said. “But it took me a few seconds to get the car in gear. I started to drive off — and that’s when I saw the smoke” from the booby trapped money bag.
The cabdriver hit the brakes and demanded an explanation.
“Then the guy gets out of the cab and I see money flying all over the street — it was blood red and I thought maybe he had been shot,” he said.
Gregg bolted, but Krieg demanded Omeje open the trunk so he could get his suitcases.
“Not until you tell me what was going on,” he told him, and Krieg ran.
Omeje called police and since Krieg’s ID was in the suitcase, they were able to track down and bust the duo.
It all happened too fast to think, Omeje said.
“The truth is I wasn’t scared because it was only 11 o’clock in the morning, and nothing bad happens in the city at 11 o’clock,” he said.
Omeje, whose been driving a taxi for six years, says he has been thinking about a career change and now he’s convinced.
“Psychologically, driving a cab is too much — I am looking for a different line of work, like starting my own business,” he said.
