In a terrifying incident captured on video in Samara City, Russia, a taxi driver experienced a “ride from hell” after his passenger threatened him with a massive machete. The reason for the attack? She couldn’t stand the “dance music” blaring in his cab and demanded he play “chanson” instead.
‘I Don’t Like This Kind of Music’
The shocking event was caught on the cab’s internal camera, showing a woman believed to be in her fifties lounging in the back seat.
Footage shows her rummaging through her bag before suddenly brandishing a large machete, thrusting it between the front seats and near the driver’s face. In a moment of sheer panic, the driver sways to the side, wincing as he tries to edge away from the blade.
“I don’t like this kind of [dance] music,” the woman states calmly.
The petrified cabbie stutters, “I understand, I understand. I’ll turn it off.”
She then presses him: “Couldn’t you understand the first time?”
A Demand for ‘Criminal Underworld Songs’
The woman wasn’t satisfied with silence. She had a specific request, ordering him: “Turn on chanson.”
She promised, “When you turn on [my favourite chanson], I’ll put [the machete] away.”
For Russians, the “chanson” genre is a broad term, but it is often associated with blatnaya pesnya, or “criminal underworld songs,” which romanticize the lives of convicts and gangsters.
The driver, who had slipped off his seat belt and appeared ready to bolt from the car, desperately switched to the station she demanded. Only then did the woman casually set the lethal blade down.
“We’re going to the cemetery.”
After the music was changed, the driver nervously asked, “Do you know where we’re going?”
She replied simply: “We’re going to the cemetery.”
Reports state the terrifying trip ended at a local cemetery without any physical violence, despite the woman’s onslaught of demands.
Police Launch Investigation
Although the driver did not make a formal complaint, the disturbing video quickly went viral, prompting a police investigation. Officers from the Smyshlyaevka police station in Samara have launched a search for the machete-wielding passenger.
Officials are now working to trace the mystery, headscarf-wearing woman and her weapon.