Teen trapped by crash ‘ransom’
Ontarian forced to pay up in China
After three days of nerve-racking negotiation he says verged on “blackmail,” a former Alexandria, Ont., resident trapped in China can finally leave the country after he struck a deal with the family of a woman injured in a moped crash.
Jacob Gerow, 19, said the woman’s family in the rural town of Huangshan claimed Gerow should pay $20,000 for medical expenses.
“It’s definitely the most emotional thing I’ve gone through,” Gerow said Friday by phone from China. “It’s like blackmail, ransom and a million other weird things all at the same time.”
Gerow had just arrived in Huangshan on Tuesday when he hired a “pedal taxi,” or rickshaw, to drive him from the station. He noticed the rickshaw operator was tired and offered to take over. A 61-year-old woman on a moped cut in front of him.
Gerow said the rickshaw brakes didn’t work and he slammed into the woman’s moped. She fell and hurt her knee, Gerow said, but the extent of her injuries was never really known. Gerow, a McGill University student, said the woman’s family members tried to intimidate him into paying them by surrounding the hotel he was staying at. Gerow said he feared for his safety and worried about what would happen if he tried to leave.
The family of the rickshaw operator also “stalked” Gerow, he said. If he left, they would be forced to foot the woman’s medical expenses.
“They avoid any sort of law,” Gerow said. “They just use their own tactics to get whatever they need.”
He said the police told him to pay the money so he wouldn’t force two families into financial ruin.
Gerow, who was not charged, said a lawyer and a translator helped talk the family down to $10,000.
Once the transaction had been completed, Gerow said he planned to travel to Beijing.