TOTTORI (TR) – To be filed under: not fare.
Tottori Prefectural Police on Monday arrested a woman who declined to pay the taxi fare after traveling more than 600 kilometers between Kanagawa and Tottori prefectures, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Jan. 18).
At around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, Ayako Sakai boarded the taxi at JR Totsuka Station in Yokohama City. “I want to see the Tottori Sand Dunes,” she told the driver.
About eight hours later, the cab arrived at a location near JR Tottori Station. However, when asked to pay fare of 236,690 yen, Sakai said, “I have no money.”
The driver then took the woman to the Tottori Police Station where she was accused of fraud. “I don’t know my name or address,” said the woman, who was in possession of several hundred yen.
However, police later confirmed her identity as being that of Sakai, who is from Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture.
According to Google Maps, the distance between Yokohama and Tottori cities is about 650 kilometers. Though lengthy, such a journey is not even close to a record for such cases.
In 2016, a man failed to pay a driver after traveling about 850 kilometers between Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture and Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture. The fare that time totaled 270,000 yen.
