Woman in Des Plaines tricks taxi drivers out of fares

A woman in Des Plaines has been using cabs to visit Walgreens stores scattered around the suburbs, running up hundreds of dollars in unpaid taxi bills in the process.

Around 3:15 p.m. Oct. 10, the woman instructed the driver to take her from Prairie Lakes Park to a Walgreens pharmacy in Downers Grove to pick up a prescription. She returned to the cab, saying the pharmacy did not have the prescription.

She then instructed the male taxi driver to take her to four Walgreens in Naperville, one in Aurora and one in Niles. Each time she told the driver the pharmacy did not have her prescription.

She then instructed him to drive her to a home on the 700 block of South Wolf Road and told him to park in the driveway while she went inside to get the $360 fare money. She disappeared behind the home and did not return.

According to reports, a woman of similar description led another cabdriver on a similar journey to various Walgreens also on a Wednesday two weeks earlier on Sept. 26, never getting a prescription.

That cabdriver dropped off the woman at the same address, and again she disappeared. She was described as in her 20s, 5-foot-5, and heavy set.