During a four-hour stretch before dawn Monday, two men used a gun to rob three different cabdrivers, including one who had picked the men up at a Strip casino, authorities said.
The victims were drivers from Checker Cab, A-North Las Vegas Cab and A Cab, said Rob Stewart, an investigator with the Nevada Taxicab Authority.
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The Checker cab and A Cab had video cameras operating at the time of the robberies, though the tapes were not released to the media on Monday, authorities said.
The first robbery happened about 2 a.m. and was followed by two more, about 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., Stewart said.
The robbers got into the cabs at various hotels and directed the drivers to spots where the crimes could take place with little attention, Stewart said.
Once at those locations, "one of the suspects hit the driver with the handgun," and demanded money, Stewart said. Each of the drivers sustained minor injuries, he said.
The robbers got into the cabs at Luxor, on Las Vegas Boulevard near Tropicana Avenue, Terrible's Hotel Casino at Paradise and Flamingo roads, and an Emerald Suites on Tropicana, Stewart said.
One of the robberies took place near Tropicana and Polaris avenues, just west of the Strip. Another robbery happened near the intersection of Rainbow Boulevard and Smoke Ranch Road in the northwest valley, Stewart said. The third robbery took place in the southwest valley, though the exact location was not immediately released.
The taxicab authority is investigating the robberies in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police Department.
In September, the Legislative Commission failed to adopt regulations designed to reduce crime in cabs. Without the approval of the commission -- a group of 12 legislators -- any regulations proposed by state agencies could not be implemented.
The taxicab authority wanted to require cab companies in Clark County to establish "safety programs" to protect drivers and their passengers, but would not require them to equip cabs with cameras and recorders.
Most Clark County cab companies already have cameras in taxis now. Western and Frias don't, though both companies have said they plan to voluntarily install cameras by the end of the year.
Frias operates cabs under five different names, including A-North Las Vegas Cab Company. The only taxi robbed early Monday that didn't have a camera was an A-North Las Vegas cab.
Improving cab safety became a priority for some legislators after cabby Pairoj Chitprasart died in 2004 when a passenger doused him with gasoline and set him on fire during a robbery.
