Cabbie fends off robber with a knife

ST. PETERSBURG -- When two men wanted to rob cab driver Shasta Anderson, 57, she had an answer for them: her Swiss Army-style knife.

Anderson said she picked up two men about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at 3482 Queensboro Ave. and they asked her to take them to 30th Avenue S and Seventh Street. When she got nearby and stopped, one of the men, seated directly behind her, asked for change. "He said give me your money, I have a gun, I'll shoot."

She refused, and the man lunged to the front seat and grabbed her money. But Anderson jabbed his arm with the knife she always keeps in the front seat. Although she says she didn't find blood in her car afterward, she thinks she sunk the knife deep enough to hit muscle. She never saw a gun.

Meanwhile, the other man got out of the car, grabbed her purse from the front seat and ran away.

Anderson then slammed on the gas, and slowed when she returned to Martin Luther King Jr. Street. The remaining robber jumped out of the car, along with the cash he had grabbed out of Anderson's hand.

Anderson said she has felt "a rainbow of emotions" since last night's robbery, and reached one conclusion: "From now on I will carry box cutters because the knife wasn't nearly sharp enough."

-- Curtis Krueger, Times staff writer

Comments

awesome woman. Glad she's ok. there's no one to rely on but yourself on the south side.

[Dr_Dug]

Yup...as our leaders "apologize" for Salvery 143 years ago...Black Thugs continue to plague society! Send them to jail or put them back in chains!!

Who said they were black. There are just as many white crackheads on the south side.

[Shaka Zulu]

South Sy-eeda!