Taxi driver gave back €300, never saw the €500 note. He got tear gas too.

There was no ride. The car arrived, the price was agreed, money changed hands, in one direction only. Then the taxi driver drove off alone, with burning eyes, without two wallets and without his ID card.

On Saturday, a few minutes after 11 pm, police in Velike Dole dealt with a theft, a fraud and the infliction of minor bodily harm. All three in a single incident that lasted about as long as it takes to count out three hundred euros.

The trick is old and works because it is quick

The taxi driver had come to pick up a customer who wanted to go to Koper, on the coast. The trip is long and the fare matches.

"When he told him the ride would cost 200 euros, the stranger offered to pay with a 500-euro note and asked whether he could give him 300 euros in change." (translated)

This is really where the story ends. Everything after it is just debt collection. The next sentence of the police account is the entire crime:

"The taxi driver handed him 300 euros, but the stranger did not hand over the 500-euro note." (translated)

No counterfeit note. No swapped note. There was no need to have a note at all. The trick is in the order: the change goes out first, the payment comes second, and the second never arrives.

Two women who were supposedly bringing the money

Meanwhile, two younger women approached the vehicle, supposedly to bring the money. The police do not explain this part any further and neither will we, but it is the reason the driver did not drive off at once. Someone is always on their way with the money. The money is always just about to arrive.

When the driver demanded his three hundred euros back, he got tear gas in the face and blows. He fought off the attack, drove away and called the police.

Only with the police did he see everything he had lost

In the presence of the officers, it was established that two wallets had also disappeared during the attack. In them: a driving licence, an ID card, a bank card and a work card, and 100 euros in cash.

A driving licence. For a man who makes his living from driving.

The accounting that shows who really paid

The last sentence of the police statement is the coldest part of the story:

"According to the police, the owner of the company suffered damage of 300 euros, and the taxi driver 100 euros." (translated)

Translated: the three hundred euros was the company's change, the hundred was his own. So the damage report says the bigger loss fell on someone who was not there that night at all. The man who was there lost a hundred euros, his documents and a face full of tear gas, and the last one fits in no column.

What this report leaves out

The police description, as published, contains no description of the perpetrator. No age, no clothing, no vehicle, no direction in which the person left. It does not say whether the customer was the one who called for the ride, or whether the call came through a platform, a dispatcher or from the street. It does not say whether the driver sought a doctor for medical help.

These are not accusations. It is a list of what the public would need if anyone were to recognise the perpetrator, and of what the only existing record does not contain.

The police are continuing to gather information and are searching for the perpetrator, against whom they will file a criminal complaint.

A lesson nobody will heed

Money goes out only when money is in. That is all. This sentence is older than taxis, older than the euro, and on Saturday evening in Velike Dole it once again cost four hundred euros, two documents and a visit to the police.