Scaredy Panda!!!!

Coming to Los Angeles without a car may not have been the smartest move. Last night, after meeting up with friends in West Hollywood, I had to make my way to the lovely city of Commerce to check into my hotel and get some sleep before the jobby part of my visit began.

Mapquest informed me that it would take about 30 minutes to make the journey, so my friend called a taxi to come pick me up around midnight. The dispatcher assured us that a cab would be over in 12 minutes. Well, 30 minutes later, a black SUV with tinted windows rolled up and asked if we had called a cab. I timidly replied that we had, and he declared that he was the cab driver, shaking his radio above his head as proof.

After about five minutes of assuring us that he was indeed a legitimate taxi driver, and that he just drove an unmarked car, I entered the backseat, still skeptical, but very tired and very eager to get to my hotel.

As we traveled along the freeway, the taxi driver noticed that one of his back wheels was making a strange sound. Was that metal on asphalt? He believed he had a flat tire. So, he pulled off the freeway, somewhere in East LA. I looked around and realized we were in quite an unsavory neighborhood. He pulled over, stopped the car and got out to look at his back tire.

At this point, many thoughts ran through my head and I began furiously texting my friend so that I could be in contact with someone (while trying to maintain my panda cool, so that the taxi driver wouldn't realize that I understood he was about to shoot me in the head). "What is he reaching for in the trunk?" "Is his partner going to jump out from that alley and attack me?" "Does he really have a flat tire? And if so, what if someone senses that we are helpless victims?" "Why the hell did I get into a 'taxi' without any proper taxi markings?"

The taxi driver drove a few more blocks and pulled into a gas station, where he called his brother to pick me up. While he tended to his tire, I kept frantically texting my friend, who wrote, "Should I call 911?"

Several minutes later, taxi driver's brother pulled up and I hopped into his car. Luckily, these "taxi"-driving hermanos were legit and he got me to my hotel safe and sound, but quite shaken up.

Internets, what would you have done? What should I have done? Getting in this car and traveling through East LA at 1am was probably not the brightest decision I've made in my short life...