“Send the police, send the police to Port Chalmer now,” a 42-year-old Indian-origin Dunedin taxi driver yelled to his wife over the phone before the call dropped at 10.49pm on Christmas night.
“I was making pakoras (fritters) for Christmas night when my husband called in panic,” the taxi driver’s wife recalled.
“I thought somebody had attacked him from behind.”
The dropped call left her fearing for the husband’s life.
The taxi driver was assaulted for several minutes, during which he said he was kicked multiple times.
The incident occurred on 25 December, 2025, when he picked up two passengers from Port Chalmers in Dunedin around 10.30pm for a journey of approximately 18–20 kilometres.
“Police received a call about 10:50pm on Christmas Day reporting a male and a female were assaulting a taxi driver near the port in Port Chalmers,” Southern District Police wrote on their Facebook page on 26 December.
15 harrowing minutes
Recalling the attack, the driver told The Indian Weekender that a male and female passenger sat at the back with beer cans and a beer bottle in hand between the two. As the driver entered the destination into the GPS, he asked the passengers to finish their drinks.
“Within moments, the man from the backseat got out, opened my car door and struck the beer bottle on my head,” he recalled.
“I blacked out for a moment and quickly shut the door of my car.”
The first strike did not break the bottle, but the passenger then began smashing it on the car window. Fearing for his safety, the driver exited, but the female passenger remained in the car.
“She then came in front and attempted to flee with the car, and I managed to stop it by shutting the engine,” the driver said.
The taxi’s emergency alarm failed to work despite him pressing it multiple times. Both passengers continued the assault, the driver said . He said the woman passenger then kicked his thighs while he tried to defend himself, and he was repeatedly struck on the shoulder with the bottle by the man.
“Every time I attempted to drive off three–four times, but they did not let me. They would sit on top of my car and smash it,” he said.
The driver said that the attack also left his taxi damaged, including dents, scratches, broken tail lights, and damage to the taxi signage.
After 15 harrowing minutes on a near-empty road, the driver managed to call his wife from the recent phone logs.
“At that moment the woman passenger kicked me again and my phone fell down,” he recalled.
Senior Sergeant Mark Crawford said members of the public came to help the victim and provided police with valuable information on the movements of the offenders.
“What’s taken place is a cowardly attack, and doesn’t represent what our community stands for. We saw members of the public determined to help someone in need, and they have our thanks,” Senior Sergeant Crawford said.
“Please save my husband or they’ll kill him”
The Indian Weekender spoke with the driver’s wife, who had called the police without knowing the exact location of the incident at Port Chalmer.
After calling his wife to contact the police, the call had dropped midway when the phone fell as driver struggled to escape.
“I froze," the wife recalled.
She quickly contacted 111 with the help of her niece, providing taxi details and nearby landmarks to help police locate the scene.
In panic, the wife pleaded with the police to “please save my husband or they’ll kill him.”
“I did not know if he was there or if I had lost him,” she said.
She later rushed to the scene with their son, fearing for her husband's safety.
Meanwhile, members of the public had begun gathering and calling the police as well.
The driver said he almost lost consciousness and could hear voices around him, but eventually received support from officers at the scene.
The driver mentioned that he has received “immense support from the police" and helped him calm down.
The ordeal has also affected the couple’s eight-year-old son.
“Every time we sit in the car now my son asks us to check the locks properly. My son dreamt that the people who attacked his father came to our home, and that he was telling them to go back,” the mother said. The parents are now arranging counselling for their child.
The taxi driver is currently stable and receiving holistic well-being support following the ordeal.
Police said information from the public helped lead them to a Port Chalmers address, where the male and female were arrested around 1:40am on 26 December, 2025.
They appeared in the Dunedin Youth Court on charges of assault with intent to injure.