The dangers of hacking
In June, a hack cabdriver was charged with raping a 14-year-old passenger he'd picked up back in 2000. Two hack drivers were shot and killed in separate incidents in East Baltimore over the span of four days in April.
"It carries a tremendous amount of risk," Guglielmi said.
Some city supermarkets agree. When Shoppers Food & Pharmacy opened at Mondawmin Mall in 2007, the corporate office asked General Manager Roun Perry if he needed anything. He did: a "No Hacking" sign. It remains posted out front, though store security still has to chase hackers away.
"They got telltale signs, they have their keys jingling as people come out," Perry said. "They might walk in the store, pretending to shop."
Fears of liability
Perry fears the store, which has lots of licensed cabs out front, could face liability if it endorsed hacks as some other markets have done.
"If something happens, if there's an issue with cabdrivers, you can call the cab company," Perry said. "If you leave with a hack, you're kind of on your own."
Hack drivers and riders alike say supermarket hacking is safe because the same customers and drivers see each other week after week. They make a distinction between "courtesy drivers," mostly older men who've submitted to background checks and have a store's permission to hack, and the younger "jacklegs" who just show up.
Call for the 'captain'
The courtesy drivers belong to drivers' clubs, each with its own "captain." The store won't do a background check or issue an ID unless the captain vouches for him. The captain also mediates any disputes among hackers over customers. Customers set the price for each ride, something drivers contend makes the service not only cheaper than licensed cabs but also legal. (Guglielmi said it's illegal no matter who determines the fare.)
Hackers who aren't part of the club still try to get customers at the door. They're usually shooed away, but sometimes they pick up customers before that happens.
Johnny Allen, a 69-year-old retired construction worker who hacks at Food Depot when he isn't working as a minister at Thank God for Jesus Church, looked askance at a young man who was not a regular at the store but was offering rides to shoppers one recent morning. "They've been known to take people's stuff," Allen said of the "jacklegs." If a courtesy driver tried to make off with someone's groceries, he added, "they got our name and [car] tag and everything in the store."
