An American tourist visiting London has said she was taken to a secluded spot and pressured by a pedicab driver to hand over her phone and bank card. Heather Ford, 39, from Florida, said the incident left her shaking and vomiting.
Mrs Ford said the driver asked for her phone several times under the guise of taking pictures for her during a journey back to her hotel after she was picked up outside His Majesty's Theatre, where Phantom of the Opera is performed. The incident happened just weeks before new regulations are due to take effect for pedicab drivers.
Tourist's account of the incident
Mrs Ford, an executive assistant, said she had "always dreamed of doing" a solo vacation to the UK. She researched her five-day trip, split between Edinburgh and London, "a crazy amount" before she arrived, and shared her itinerary with family and friends. She said: "I'm a mum, I have two kids, I'm married. I felt like I took every precaution."
She said the pedicab trip was one thing she did that wasn't on her itinerary, because she fell ill while watching Phantom of the Opera and wanted to head back to her hotel early. She added: "There were so many of them, they were everywhere, so I thought they were something fun, geared for tourists."
Explaining what happened, she said: "I wasn't feeling well at all. I remember calling my husband, saying I'm going to take an Uber during the intermission. I'm just feeling out of it, have a headache. I'm realising everyone's going back in and there was probably about five of these little bikes I thought I will just take one of those, it will be super quick."
"[The driver] showed me what the cab fare was; he said I wouldn't know what it was until I got there. I was thinking it's super close, so I'm sure it won't be anything crazy." She added: "He makes a phone call or whatever; I'm taking pictures and videos while I'm in the back of it. While we get close [to the hotel], he takes me over to the right, far away. I was like 'That's sketchy, weird', so my guard was up a little bit at that point and he tells me 'It's going to be £53, I will take £40 in cash, the rest on card'. I hand him £40, another guy comes up on a different [pedicab], says, 'Let me have your phone'."
Refusal and aftermath
Mrs Ford claimed a third man then appeared on foot and asked for her bank card. "That was the huge red flag," she said, "that's when I realised this is definitely not normal; everybody accepted [a contactless] tap." She said it seemed like the men all knew each other. The second pedicab driver, who asked for her phone, said he wanted to take pictures with it, but she refused to give it to him, and he responded, "Don't you want memories?"
Mrs Ford said she's not someone who gets intimidated easily, and she refused to hand anything over to the men. She said: "I started getting loud eventually; I yelled 'No!' I opened my bag, took £10, tossed it at the guy, said 'This is what you're getting'." She then went to her hotel. Mrs Ford said: "I was shaking, I threw up, I was very shaken from it."
She said she realised she had been outnumbered by the three men in a "secluded area" and feels the situation could have ended very differently. Mrs Ford wants more to be done to prevent this from happening to tourists - she thinks they should be warned in places like hotels or train stations.
TfL response and new regulations
A TfL spokesperson said: "This must have been a very distressing incident and our thoughts are with the person involved. We encourage anyone who has been a victim of crime to report it to the police."
"We're working closely with pedicab drivers, operators and our other partners as we move towards our new regulations coming into effect from 27 November 2026. All pedicab drivers and operators in London will be required to be licensed by TfL, and operating without a licence will be a criminal offence. These changes will help ensure pedicabs are driven and operated in a professional manner, and will give customers greater confidence that they are using a licensed and regulated service. The new regulations will give us much greater powers, and we are working closely with the police and enforcement officers to bring these into effect next month."
