The man who got into Teddy Johnson’s cab was disheveled, smelled bad — and proceeded to buy six 18-packs of Bud Light and six gallons of hard liquor after asking the driver to stop at a drive-through liquor store.
But it wasn’t until the Metro Taxi cabby delivered his passenger home and saw a garage filled with empty Bud Light and Blackjack Pizza boxes that he realized the man and his brother, who lived with him, needed help.
Johnson alerted Northglenn police, who got the brothers the social-services assistance they needed to live healthier lives.
On Tuesday, Johnson and five other taxi drivers from throughout the metro area received Taxi on Patrol awards for contacting police when they saw something suspicious or dealt with someone who needed help.
“The cops said they would send out social services,” said Johnson, 50. “They did get him some help.”
Since Taxi on Patrol’s inception in January 2011, drivers have reported hundreds of suspicious incidents and crimes in progress, including hit-and-runs, homicides, sexual assaults, robberies and carjackings.
Over the past year, the program has expanded to more than 30 agencies in the metro area, and it is being implemented in Australia, South Africa, Japan and elsewhere.
Also receiving the quarterly awards were Mindy Wilson of Metro Taxi; Steven Bell and Joseph Gallegos of Yellow Taxi; Virginia Baldwin of Freedom Taxi; and Mohamed Hussein of Union Taxi.
