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Regina woman believes she entered stranger's vehicle sitting in taxi line

New taxicab regulations don't do enough to erase 'double standard' for accessible cabs, customers say

Co-op Taxi says it has no record of any fares going from a nightclub to a Regina woman's home after she claimed a taxi driver exposed his genitals to her on Friday.

"We checked all the 77 cars — nobody went to that place," said Daljit Singh, president of Co-op Taxi. The cabs are all equipped with USB keys that record the trips. The keys are automatically deleted after three days.

Carolyn Harris first reported to CBC that she got into a Co-op Taxi on Friday night and the cab driver allegedly exposed himself to her. She now believes she got into a stranger's vehicle that was sitting in a taxi line.

Regina police have confirmed a taxi was not involved in the incident. They would not give details on the vehicle's description or the driver.

Driver asked to use bathroom in home

Harris said she and her boyfriend went to Gabbo's Nightclub after attending a work function that night.

Once there she decided to leave a bit earlier than the rest of the crowd and got into a car parked outside the club.

The driver then asked if he could use her washroom when they arrived at her home. She felt the request was odd but reluctantly agreed.

"I immediately felt unsafe when he was in my home. I stayed at the front door waiting to let him out," she said. As such she phoned her boyfriend who was still out.

But when he exited the bathroom he allegedly dropped his pants and exposed his genitals to Harris.

"I just started yelling and my boyfriend was there on the other end of the phone listening to this, but I was yelling that I was going to call the police, from him to get out of my house and he was putting his hands up trying to, sort of, shush me," she said.

"I just kept screaming and yelling for him to get out, get out, get out, get out, get out. And then he left."

Immediately following the incident Harris called the Co-Op Taxi's company's dispatch line to report the incident.

On Saturday, Harris went to the Regina Police Service front desk to file a report on the incident. On Monday, the RPS confirmed it is investigating the complaint.

Police say they haven't heard of other cases like this

The officer in charge of traffic and overseeing the city's taxi licensing said this is the first complaint he's seen in which a person has got into what she thinks is a cab and later had the driver allegedly expose themselves.

"I can confirm through our investigation we have established she was not in a taxi cab. It wasn't a Co-op cab; it wasn't any type of a cab for the city of Regina," said Sgt. Ian Barr.

According to Barr, there have not been similar complaints about someone trying to pick up women, posing as taxi drivers, but he said that doesn't mean it isn't worrying.

"If it was a relative of mine I'd be pretty upset," he said.

'I feel violated'

After filing her report, Harris shared her experience on Facebook in a now deleted post.

Joking, Harris said that she keeps her daughter's baseball bat by the door after what happened on Friday, and considered installing a security camera in her home. She said it's scary that the driver now knows where she lives.

"I feel violated. It's hard to believe that it happened," said Harris.

"But it could have been so much worse, and that's the scary thing."