Cab Driver Factors in Unwitting Arrest, Still Wants His Two Dollars

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 27, 2010 8:00PM

It's safe to assume a few of us have passed out in a cab before. But how many of us were taken to a police station by the cabbie? And how many of us were holding when said cabbie pulled up to the police station? In short, we're glad we weren't 25-year-old Joseph Andrew Hoffman on Christmas Day.

A cab picked up Hoffman sometime in the afternoon on Christmas Day in Lincoln Park, where Hoffman directed him to an address in Rogers Park. Along the way, Hoffman passed out hard. The cab driver tried to rouse Hoffman for about 10 minutes then, concerned about collecting his fare, drove to the police station.

The cops searched Hoffman's bag and found something inside no Santa we know would stuff in a stocking: a mini meth lab, to be specific. Police said Hoffman consented to a search of an apartment on the 800 Block of West Dakin in Lakeview, where cops found a gallons of suspected GHB, some pot, $1,401 in cash and other drug paraphernalia. Hoffman was charged with six counts of felony drug possession and ordered held on $100,000 bail by a Cook County judge.

Meanwhile, the cabbie, like the paper boy in "Better Off Dead," just wanted just wanted to get paid. He told the Tribune, "It was going on and on, and I didn't even get my full fare."