SUNSET BEACH – A cabdriver was suddenly without his ride after a man he refused to pick up jumped in his cab and drove away, leaving the cabbie stranded on the side of Pacific Coast Highway early this morning.

Richard Banda Mendoza, 30, of Bellflower was arrested at the Harbor Boulevard Apartments on the 17100 block of Pacific Coast Highway just after 8 a.m. today on suspicion of carjacking the cabdriver five hours earlier.

Sheriff's deputies also recovered the cab, which belongs to the Yellow and White Cab Company.

The Yellow and White Cab Company received a call about 3 a.m. today to pick up a customer at the Harbor House Café, a 24-hour eatery in Sunset Beach, Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. A man outside the café on the 16300 block of Pacific Coast Highway stopped the cabdriver demanded a ride to Huntington Beach. The driver refused, saying another customer had called the cab.

The pedestrian jumped in the back of the cab and demanded to be taken to Huntington.

The cab driver got out of his cab to argue with the man and the would-be passenger ran to the driver's side of the cab, jumped in the cab and drove off, leaving the driver behind, Amormino said.

Sheriff's deputies tracked the cab and Mendoza to the Harbor Apartments on the 17100 block of Pacific Coast Highway.

The cabdriver identified Mendoza as the man who made off with his cab.

Mendoza, a tattoo artist, is being held on $100,000 bail at the West Justice Center.
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