Almelo kids end up in Germany in terrifying taxi ride

Three Almelo children spent two and a half hours terrified in a taxi on Monday. The taxi driver picked them up to take them to school in Enschede, but instead drove them to Germany. 12-year-old Kiki Kuitert managed to let her mom know what was happening and begged the driver to drive more carefully and pull over after he hit at least two guardrails, mother Hilleke Kuitert writes on Facebook.

Kiki got into the taxi as usual at 7:50 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. she sent her mother a message to let her know that she was still not at school. "I asked what the hell was going on and where they were. In Germany. They were afraid, because the driver hit the guardrail two times already." Hilleke writes. 

While on the phone with her daughter, Hilleke also contacted Taxi Almelo. "Then there's a heartbreaking situation in which Kiki begs the driver to drive straight because they're almost on the guardrail. In the background I hear the other girl screaming in fear." Kiki kept asking the man to stop. "Finally the three children succeeded in convincing him to take an exit. Then they immediately got out."

Kiki sent her mother their location and the police and taxi service immediately responded. The driver kept telling the kids to get back into the car, but they refused.

"The driver was brought home by a colleague", Taxi Almelo director Gerbert Luttikhuis said to newspaper AD. "His story is that he missed an exit. But he drove 60 km/h on the highway and by my count he missed nine exits." What the man's intentions were is unclear. "I'm sure he did not have any bad intentions with the children. I suspect a medical background, he needs help." A doctor and the man's family were called.

The driver was a temp that drove for Taxi Almelo for the first time last week. "The man had a taxi pass, a VOG and years of experience. We did not notice anything off during conversations." He will no longer drive for the taxi service.

Hilleke Kuitert pressed charges with the police. She doesn't blame the taxi service. "It also happened to them and we got all their cooperation. But this man must not be allowed behind the wheel", she said to AD.