Taxi Driver Who Drove Escaped Inmates To Bay Area Recalls Kidnapping
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A Southern California taxi driver who was held hostage by three escaped inmates and forced to drive to the Bay Area is talking about his kidnapping.
"I feel happy," cabbie Long Ma said after surviving a trio of escapees hijacking his taxi.
"I thought Bac Duong was going to kill me, not save me," Ma said through a translator.
For seven days, Duong, Jonathan Tieu and Hossein Nayeri drove from Los Angeles County to San Jose with Ma in tow. Ma said they would stay in cheap motels, the jailbirds laughing as they watched their own manhunt play out on the local news.
"Ride the first night, they turn on the TV, and Bac Duong showed me on the TV. These are us," Ma recalled.
Ma said at one point Jonathan Tieu put a gun in his side, but inmate Bac Duong protected him and saved his life.
Eventually, Duong and Ma split from the two fugitives, making the long drive back to Southern California, where Duong eventually turned himself in to authorities.
"On the way back to Southern California, Duong told me escaping the prison is not easy," Ma said.
As for the other two escapees, they were eventually spotted and arrested near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, leaving the cabbie with quite the story to tell.
The suspects told Ma they spent seven months planning their escape.
The men were also wired $3,000 while they were on the run, allegedly by the mother of one of the inmates.
