In a detailed and harrowing account, a young woman named Janay Evins (@yyanaj) claims a taxi driver tried to kidnap her and her friends on the first night of her birthday trip in Colombia.
That night, the young women decided to get a yellow taxi back to their resort from a popular nightclub called Casa Palenque. Per her account, Evins, 23, and her friend Lex set their phones’ GPS to their accommodations while their male taxi driver drove – a precaution the women usually do when they travel. However, the duo realized that the driver was going in the general direction of the resort but was “missing small turns.” The first red flag Evins noticed is that while rideshares usually rush to drop off her group so they can return to touristy hotspots (and get more rides), this time, their driver was driving slowly behind a van on the freeway.
Though she briefly drifted asleep, Evins awoke and directed the driver to go the proper route to the women’s resort. She said that instead of going the right way, the driver was trying to get into the wrong lane. Things drastically escalated when she firmly told him to go in the right direction, and the driver allegedly snatched her and Lex’s phones.
Due to their fight or flight being activated, Janay, Lex, and Maya – a friend who’d just awoken – began punching the driver as soon as the phones were taken. Then, the man allegedly kicked Evins in the chest as he got out of the car. The Tiktok user said the driver tried to pull Maya, then Lex, out of the vehicle.
“We were fighting [the driver] for a long time,” Evins recalled. “We wore this man out – like he literally gave up.”
What Else Happened To The TikToker And Her Friends?
Following the failed attempt to snatch the two young women from the back seat, the man allegedly tried to get back into the driver’s seat. However, Evins claims that the driver’s door ended up broken because she was holding onto it for dear life from the car’s interior. Evins tried to get at least one of the women’s phones from inside the vehicle, and Lex started running away. Eventually, all three women ended up outside the car and started running towards the resort, which they knew was close by because they’d kept eyes on the GPS earlier. As they fled, Evins said she was screaming for help, and Lex called out in prayer.
Throughout the ordeal, Evins couldn’t maneuver the car and drive her and her friends away.
What Else Should Travelers Know About The Women’s Harrowing Experience In Colombia?
The initial video Evins posted has garnered over 6.5 million views. In that clip, she said, “I don’t want [anybody] telling me, ‘Oh, I’ve been [to Colombia] before. I didn’t experience that.'”
“Don’t discredit what happened to me, and don’t try to undermine that s–t. I need therapy. This is very traumatic what happened to us,” she continued.
Overall, the time the women spent going to Colombia – and the very short time they were there – seemed mostly fraught. Evins said she and her friends experienced many travel delays before the group even arrived. Then, according to her, the male Colombian street vendors trying to sell them things were “overwhelming.” Moreover, Evins added that the vibes while out and about were too “overly saturated with flirtation.” She noted that she and her friends experienced catcalling and unwanted male attention. Additionally, she expressed her feeling that Black women should avoid Colombia, adding that young women are targeted there.
The women never got their phones back following the taxi incident. Also, Evins noted that their hotel (Dream Karibana Cartagena Golf & Spa Resort) was “in the cut,” meaning secluded. Travelers should consider that when deciding whether Colombia is safe.
See some of Evins’s other videos explaining the situation below.
