So last night I go to the Broken Spoke bar to see a local guy named Dale Watson. Wife was tired so I head out alone. It was a great show btw, but I cabbed it down there (about 7-8 miles sw of downtown) knowing it might be tough to get one back cuz that's peak cab time. I called at 1:45am and they said 2 hrs. Next place says an hour so I decide to try to flag one. There are about 8-9 people by the front door also waiting on cabs and I go to the road about 200 ft away. Six or seven go by and no luck. Finally one slows down and swings around to get me. At this point people are running up cuz they think it's their cab. I ask who he picking up and he says nobody - he stopped when he saw me waving so I get in. Except one lady tries to pull me out yelling that she called for one before me. The barmaid is telling me to get out cuz she called for this other couple and cab guy says no he's my fare, he flagged me down.
By now a drunk guy from Oklahoma who I was talking to in the parking lot about splitting a fare with him and his uncle have opened the rear passenger door and are trying to get in. Thats fine w/me but cab guy is telling them to get out and starts driving away and accidentally runs over the nephews foot. Nephew falls back in pain and starts yelling about his foot. Cab guy has to stop cuz the door is still open Im trying to close it just so I can get back to downtown Austin. At that point nephew comes around to the open driver window and starts bashing cab guy in the face like a maniac. I mean he's hammering him. So the cab guy drives away and crazy nephew hangs on with one hand on the door and one hand around the drivers neck. I'm like WTF and yell for the nephew to let go and yell for the driver to stop so nephew can GTF off my cab ride. We're going 15-20 mph for about 100-150 yards. Finally cab guy stops and there's some yelling and nephew falls back but gets up and starts coming back at him. Cab guy jumps out and they start going at it. I try to get out and my door is locked and there's no lock button...like I'm in a dang cop car. My window is down halfway cuz it's childproof but the outside handle won't get the door open cuz the driver has it locked and so I climb up and go thru the driver door to get them apart so I can get home.
So I go to pull nephew off who has cab guy in a head lock and when I get him standing he's covered in blood and so I'm like dang cab guy is a bleeder cuz his mouth and nose had taken a few shots and nephew starts yelling oh mother fucker you wanna stab people huh? Apparently cab guy was in a headlock cuz he was more concerned with getting out his box cutter from his pocket and slicing this kid up. I call 911 immediately and say that we've got a problem. Nephew hears me and starts running away from us, away from the bar. The police show up within a minute or two. I was really impressed with how fast they got there. Within 3-4 minutes we had four cruisers on the scene. So were telling the cops what happened and giving a description of the nephew and they send three cars out to look for him but cant find him. 45 minutes or so have passed, the uncle had come down but then got in his cab that came and takes off. He had done nothing but he was like fuck my nephews in trouble and I said yep I think so lol. I'm telling the cop that nephew had to have gone behind the buildings and he's probably not far because he has nowhere to go and he's loosing a LOT of blood. Just then we see a guy way down in a parking lot just kind of mulling about and I'm like yep I bet that's him so they go get him and cuff and stuff his ass.
Another 20 min or so goes by and they are taking our statements, getting photos of the cab guys face, etc and they finally let us go on our way. Before we left another cop comes down and says that good ol boy has seven stab wounds and a broken foot and that he's saying that he doesn't know why cab guy attacked HIM and that the medics are coming for him.
So thats my SXSW story. Why the fuck can't people just act normal and not make my cab ride back a three hour ordeal?
