“When he approached the vehicle he heard yelling,” Sheriff Eric J. That’s when the deputy decided to flash his lights and walk up to see what was happening. The shaken taxi driver, Ralph Valletta, handed over $11, telling Martinez-Herrera he had just started his shift and had no cash. Inside the car, cameras mounted on the ceiling recorded 18-year-old Victor Martinez-Herrera demanding, “Give me all your money man! Give me everything you got!” while pointing what appeared to be a pistol at his head, according to officials. Victor Martinez-Herrera faces multiple charges after allegedly trying to rob a taxi driver as a deputy waited behind him. Waiting behind the cab was Berks County, Deputy Sheriff Terry Ely, who became suspicious when the car failed to move as the traffic light turned green multiple times. Surveillance cameras recorded a masked man in Reading, Pennsylvania robbing a terrified taxi driver at gunpoint – but the suspect forgot to check the rear-view mirror. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. “I had no clue what was going on in that car - no idea.This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. “Thank God it wasn’t a real gun, because I would have been in a really bad situation,” Ely said. It turns out Martinez-Herrera’s weapon was a pellet gun with an authentic-looking scope. “He had a gun! He had it at my head,” said Vallarta. “You’re a lifesaver! Oh, my God!” Vallarta cried as Ely asked Martinez-Herrera if he had a gun on him. “Get on the ground now,” said Ely, as both Martinez-Herrera and Vallarta piled out of the cab. “Let me see your hands… get out,” Ely said calmly to a befuddled Martinez-Herrera. “Right when I hit the door, I heard the driver say, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ said Ely. “It was like a vision of God when I saw those lights,” Valletta said. Valletta, who saw the officer approaching the vehicle in his rear view mirror, told Martinez-Herrera, “There’s a cop behind us.” When the flashing lights failed to get the cab occupants’ attention, Ely exited his patrol unit and cautiously approached the back of the cab. “The commotion was still going on, so I made it a point to put on my emergency lights.” he said. “It sounded like people talking loud or some kind of an argument coming from inside of the cab,” Ely told. “He’s yelling he wants money, and all I had were 11 dollars in one pocket for change,” Valletta told the Reading Eagle newspaper.Įly, who had just finished serving civil paperwork on a resident nearby, could hear the commotion coming from the cab. When the light turned green, Valletta didn’t lift his foot off the brake. “I need yo’ money now! We can do this the easy way, or we can make this the hard way,” he shouted. Martinez-Herrera continued to shake down Valletta inside the cab. The robbery was caught on Valletta’s dashboard camera.Īs Valletta handed over his money, Deputy Sheriff Terry Ely pulled up behind the cab in his police cruiser. “Gimme all yo’ money man! Gimme everything you got!” Martinez-Herrera shouted at the terrified cabbie. Suddenly, Martinez-Herrera produced a pistol and held it to Valletta’s head. Valletta stopped at a red light at the intersection of Buttonwood Street and North 10th Street shortly before 4:30 p.m. Cab driver Ralph Valletta picked up the passenger, Victor Martinez-Herrera, 18, in Wyomissing, PA. A Pennsylvania police officer busted a thug who robbed a cab driver right in front of him.
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