SEOUL — U.S. and South Korean officials are jointly investigating an off-base taxi driver’s claims that two white men assaulted him and stole his taxi late Monday night in Uijeongbu city.
“Based on their looks, including their short haircuts and so on, we assume they are U.S. soldiers,” a Uijeongbu officer told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.
The police officer said the men might have made the investigation a bit easier than normal: Police found a cell phone they believe one of the men left in the taxi after fleeing the scene. Police were working to track the cell phone’s owner Tuesday.
The taxi driver suffered minor injuries, according to the police, and the taxi was discovered an hour later outside a residential apartment complex about a 10-minute drive from the U.S. Army’s Camp Red Cloud.
The two men, described as being in their early 20s, hailed the taxi in downtown Seoul at midnight and asked to be taken to Uijeongbu, 18 miles northeast of Seoul — a nearly $50 ride.
After arriving in Uijeongbu, the taxi driver claimed the men suddenly assaulted him and forced him from the taxi.
“The scars and bruises on his face still remain,” police said.
Maj. Kimeisha McCullum, 2nd Infantry Division spokeswoman, confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Army Criminal Investigative Command agents were working with the Korean National Police.
