[UPDATE IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

An absolutely outrageous incident occurred this morning in Boro Park, when a volunteer driving a cancer patient to a hospital had his vehicle impounded.

Sources tell YWN that a volunteer of the Chesed Organization, which has been giving sick people rides to hospitals for years, had his vehicle impounded by the TLC Police. For those of you unaware, the Chesed Organization has hundreds of volunteers who simply drive sick people to doctors or hospitals. Thousands of sick people are driven to doctors and hospitals every year by this incredible organization.

The volunteer picked up two women around 8:30 Monday morning, one at 18th Avenue and 50th Street, and one at Ft Hamilton Parkway and 53rd Street, and began driving to Manhattan. One woman was going to NYU Hospital, and the other to Cornell Hospital. One of them is a cancer patient.

They were driving along, when suddenly they were pulled over on McDonald Avenue by the TLC Police, who ordered them out of the car. The driver was issued a handful of summonses, and the vehicle was impounded. To make this story even more outrageous, the driver called Misaskim for assistance, who tells YWN that the officer wrote on the ticket that he had spoken to both passengers before they entered the vehicle, and they had even told him the fare amount they would be paying. This is an outright lie, as both women have never before seen this TLC Police Officer, nor have ever communicated with anyone at the TLC in their lives. Additionally, not one penny is ever collected or charged by these dedicated volunteers. They were simply stopped because the officer saw a Chasidic male driver, with two females in the backseat, which may seem as if it was a car service – with the vehicle not properly having TLC Plates.

The women were picked up by another Chesed Volunteer and driven to Manhattan a short while later.

YWN has learned that Misaskim has contacted all the local politicians, and are going to try and stop the constant harassment these volunteers go through for no reason.

As YWN reported in January, The NYC’s Taxi & Limousine (TLC) Police has lately been spending a substantial amount of time on the streets of Boro Park, stopping vehicles and sometimes ticketing and even towing them. The mission of the TLC Police is to enforce the taxi commission’s rules and regulations. They are apparently looking for illegally operating car services, who do not have proper licensing and insurance.

The TLC Police are apparently unaware that many Orthodox Jews give rides to the many residents hitching rides around the neighborhood, never taking a dollar for their services.

UPDATE 11:45AM: NYC Councilman David Greenfield gave the following statement to YWN: “This is truly a case of ‘no good deed goes unpunished.’ This kind of behavior by the Taxi & Limousine Commission is midas s’dom. It’s astonishing that any law enforcement official can be so callous as to leave two cancer patients stranded on the way to the hospital. I have asked the TLC for a full investigation into this matter and to the allegations that the office lied about the circumstances of impounding this vehicle. I have also asked that TLC return this car immediately to its owner.”

(Chaim Shapiro – YWN)