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Rosco O’Neal. Photos by Richard M. Brooks |
May 08, 2008
The Price
of Kindness
Think twice before helping out someone in need —
especially if you’re an elderly man on your way to the
market. It could cost you thousands.
By Angie Hargot
Rosco O’Neal, a diminutive 78-year-old man, sat in front of his
little yellow house in Opa-locka on a clear Tuesday
afternoon and, in his thick
Georgia accent, recounted a mind-boggling tale.
After helping someone whom he thought was in need, the
great-grandfather of three became the victim of a sting
operation designed to catch gypsy cab drivers. He was
accused of running an illegal taxi service, fined
thousands of dollars, had his car impounded and found
himself standing on the side of the road with two small
grocery bags in need of a ride himself.
Around
noon on April 12, O’Neal climbed into his late-model
maroon Dodge minivan and made his way to the Winn-Dixie
at Northwest 157th Street
and Seventh Avenue
to pick up some groceries. On his way into the store, a
woman stopped him and asked if he could give her a ride
home, a few blocks away.
“I said, ‘If you’re still here when I come out, I can give you a
ride,’” O’Neal recalled, while sitting on a wrought iron
chair on his front porch. He wore a blue, short-sleeve
collared shirt, green trousers and a black golf cap.
“Then I went in and did my shopping, and when I came out, I walked
right past her — I had forgotten I even said that. Then
she asked, ‘Did you forget about me?’ and I said, ‘Lord,
ma’am, I sure did.’ She asked me, ‘How much?’ and I
said, ‘Anything you want to give me.’”
But she insisted that he give her a price.
“She had two bags of groceries,” he said, wringing the morning
paper in his hands as he thought of the experience. “I
don’t know what was in them. I said, ‘$6.’”
His two bags of groceries contained all perishable meat products
that he planned to cook for dinner. He had no idea that
he would soon be left stranded on the side of the road.
In retrospect, he said he should have known something was wrong.
But because the woman claimed to be a neighbor, he gave
her a ride anyway. He dropped her off at a nearby
apartment building and she gave him $6.
With gas prices approaching $4 per gallon at the gas station near
his house, O’Neal accepted the money.
Turns out, something was wrong — he was being set up.
Moments after dropping off the woman — who turned out to
be Betty Rivera, an undercover county employee — a
Miami-Dade County Police Department squad car pulled him
over.
“The officer asked me for my driver’s license, registration and
insurance, and I asked, ‘What did I do, officer?’ and
she said I was running an illegal taxi service. I said,
‘This ain’t no taxi.’ She said, ‘You got $6 for what you
did.’ I said, ‘Yes, I have it right here,’” and he
showed her the $6, which he had tucked into his left
shirt pocket.
Regardless, Miami-Dade County Passenger Transportation Enforcement
Officer Ruben De Jesus wrote O’Neal two citations
totaling $2,020 — one for permitting the operation of a
vehicle without a chauffeur’s license; the other for not
having an operating permit or license, both of which are
required for taxis and other for-hire vehicles. His car
was towed and impounded.
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