This is without a doubt the strangest and wildest incident that I’ve ever seen involving airport transportation, as reported by Focus Taiwan and flagged by LoyaltyLobby.
In this post:
Police & ride share driver get into wild showdown
The problem of unlicensed ride share and taxi drivers at airports is pretty common, whereby someone in the terminal will offer you a ride. Often there are announcements in airports about not taking rides with these people.
That brings us to an incident that happened around 9AM on Saturday, September 20, 2025, in the passenger pick-up area of Terminal 1 at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), in Taiwan. Agents of the Aviation Police Bureau’s Security Inspection Brigade noticed a rented white Tesla trying to solicit a passenger.
The officers approached the driver, who was later identified as a 43-year-old repeat offender. After being stopped, he refused to cooperate, and tried to quickly maneuver away from the police, before the driver could even close the door of the passenger side of the car.
The passenger was thrown out of the car and appeared to even be run over by it, as the driver tried to avoid the police. The passenger was fortunately pulled to safety thanks to the help of some onlookers. During the maneuvering, the Tesla driver almost hit the police officer on multiple occasions, and then pulled away in the opposite direction.
At that point, the police officer fired warning shots into the air, and then targeted the back wheels of the car, to prevent the driver from fleeing. After eight shots were fired, the officers dragged the driver out of the car, before arresting him for endangering public safety.
Fortunately no one was seriously injured, though the passenger was taken to a local hospital. This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened. In June 2025, a driver tried to flee from airport police while under the suspicion of trying to pick up passengers illegally.
Below you can see a video of the incident…
I’ve never seen anything like this before
At airports in the United States, we often hear announcements about avoiding getting into cars with anyone who approaches you in a terminal, and with non-licensed drivers. However, enforcement seems virtually non-existent.
All the time you’ll see people wandering around terminals pretty obviously trying to offer others rides. There are police officers in the terminal, and they don’t do anything about it. So obviously the enforcement in Taiwan is the other extreme, where officials are actively looking for people violating the rules.
On the surface, firing shots over what’s ostensibly an unlicensed airport pick-up seems like a bit of an overkill. However, this very quickly went from a simple dispute over airport pick-up rules, to one about evading the police.
Did the driver really think the best outcome here would be to try and drive away, and that this would allow him to make a getaway without any consequences? Presumably he did think that, though I can’t make sense of his logic.
I’d be fascinated to know what the punishment is for picking up a passenger without a license, vs. endangering public safety, which it seems he was charged with (and that says nothing of the damage his car sustained).
Bottom line
Police at Taipei Taoyuan Airport spotted an unlicensed ride share driver trying to pick up a passenger, and took action to stop him. However, the driver tried to make a getaway, with several aggressive maneuvers that even caused the passenger to be partially run over by the car.
With the driver refusing to stop, police ultimately fired shots, including into the wheels of the Tesla, to get it to stop. I don’t think the driver made a very good risk assessment here… oy.
What do you make of this Taipei Airport ride share mess?
As a Taiwanese american I think those cops are so amateur they dont even deserve to be security guards. What an embarassment. You dont just discharge a firearm for warning shot or shoot out the tire, could have ended up much worse for bystanders. Plus highways have so many cameras/cops that it would have been easy to catch up with the driver.
I'm also in and out of TPE 20+ times a year and have...
As a Taiwanese american I think those cops are so amateur they dont even deserve to be security guards. What an embarassment. You dont just discharge a firearm for warning shot or shoot out the tire, could have ended up much worse for bystanders. Plus highways have so many cameras/cops that it would have been easy to catch up with the driver.
I'm also in and out of TPE 20+ times a year and have observed basically all kinds of "illegal" hailing. Lots of gray area stuff going on. Sometimes licensed taxi drivers (not authorized to pickup at TPE) will loiter in the arrival hall trying to catch a rider back to the city and sometimes authorized uber drivers will give their business card to frequent riders thereby bypassing the airport/uber fee system while being fully insured as a taxi provider.
Having just arrived in Taipei, I was able to avoid this by taking the MRT [train].
Hi Ben, The correct airport name for TPE is Taiwan Taoyuan, not Taipei Taoyuan. This is because the airport is located in Taoyuan city, not Taipei. You may want to update the post to reflect this.
Ben better watch out or get banned for not writing "Taiwan, China". China forced many airlines, like Air Canada, to use the term "Taiwan, China". United refused and just says "Taipei" with no country.
America better watch out for the One China policy. There is just one China and America is a province of China. America, Taiwan, both provinces of China. Trump is Governor of America. Chuck Schumer is Senate Minority Leader of the Province of America Senate.
Nonsense, this blog isn’t even targeting mainlanders. Stop spreading fear.
Two comments:
1. Shots were fired after the guy drove toward the police officer. In the US that would be an assault with a deadly weapon, police would shoot to kill - no warning shots or shooting out the tires. And in this case that's exactly what they should have done - the driver could have easily killed the passenger!
2. Warning shots in the air *at the airport*??? Seriously?
Re #2: What's a problem with that? That's how you do warning shots. Do you expect them to shoot a plane from the sky with a pistol?
Shoot a plane right out of the sky - not likely. Puncture something that would force a return to the airport - yes. Fuel or hydraulic fluid leak or inability to pressurize, for example.
Guns are lethal weapons, not warning devices. Don't fire one if you don't intend to kill (hunting included) or are practicing at a shooting range. Uniformed police ordering you to stop is the warning. If you drive directly toward (rather...
Shoot a plane right out of the sky - not likely. Puncture something that would force a return to the airport - yes. Fuel or hydraulic fluid leak or inability to pressurize, for example.
Guns are lethal weapons, not warning devices. Don't fire one if you don't intend to kill (hunting included) or are practicing at a shooting range. Uniformed police ordering you to stop is the warning. If you drive directly toward (rather than away from) an officer, expect to be shot. Same thing happens if you drive over another person while fleeing.
The chances of hitting aircraft that just happens to be flying above the airport's service road is basically zero, it's absolute nonsense. I mean, how would that even work? You can't have a plane that close to a building and low enough for a bullet from a pistol to be able to hit it. Planes land on runways, not on terminal buildings.
And warning shots in the broader semse are a normal procedure or just about any civilised police force on the planet.
Look at the armchair law enforcement experts. Warning shots are idiotic. Bullets when they go up have to come down. There are documented cases of police warning shots killing completely innocent bystanders. Next the armchair law enforcement experts will be demanding people to shoot perpetrators in the leg. Excellent way for cops to be killed because the suspect is still able to retaliate. Back in 2022 in Taiwan two cops were killed by being stabbed...
Look at the armchair law enforcement experts. Warning shots are idiotic. Bullets when they go up have to come down. There are documented cases of police warning shots killing completely innocent bystanders. Next the armchair law enforcement experts will be demanding people to shoot perpetrators in the leg. Excellent way for cops to be killed because the suspect is still able to retaliate. Back in 2022 in Taiwan two cops were killed by being stabbed to death. The perpetrator then helped himself to their guns. I wouldn't rely on Taiwan to be a blueprint of best law enforcement practices in terms of keeping officers safe.
Chinese are known to flaunt the rules when living in the west. Then they pretend they don’t speak English. Luckily, here on the East Coast it’s usually blacks who solicit passengers at the airports. Chinese don’t do it because of the lack of language skills.
I mean, they didn't open fire over an authorised taxi (no, Uber et al are not "ride shares"), but over him not following police orders. That's quite a difference.
That was meant to be unauthorised, not an authorised of course :)
Police there need better training if they are firing warning shots into the air as what goes up must come down. Once the gun comes out its lethal force time which in this case was legit because the driver already ran someone over.
Shots fired over a victimless crime? It sounds like Taipei PD must be outsourcing their training to the United States.
Or China.
Being scammed at best and kidnapped for organ harvesting at worst is not a victimless crime. Just giving you a full range of possible outcomes.
@SBS
Kidnapped for organ harvest?
You must be from Falun Dafa.
When the driver was trying to get away, the passenger fell out of the car, and he almost ran the guy over while trying to get away. I'd say the passenger was a victim. He could've been killed.
They should've fired the shots directly at him and put this repeat offender out of commission permanently. We don't need scum like that on an already overcrowded planet.
Ben: "I think pulling a gun out over unlicensed ridesharing is probably overkill"
Unhinged OMAAT readers: "Oh no, if anything it doesn't go far enough..."
Meanwhile the driver ran over his passenger but sure its overkill....... People without law enforcement experience really need to stay in their lane because they have no clue.
You're unhinged if you think criminals like that driver should be allowed to exist.