Cabbie Awarded $10K Following Lakers Riot

The man who watched his cab get burned by Laker fans following Game 7 of the NBA Finals, received a check from insurance giant AEG. The AP reports: “The apologetic president and CEO of Staples Center owner AEG on Monday gave a $10,000 check to a cabbie whose taxi was burned by a mob when violence erupted near the arena after the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship last week. ‘On behalf of all the knuckleheads, we apologize and hopefully that helps you get on your feet a little bit,’ Tim Leiweke told Abraham Teferi during the presentation at AEG offices. Teferi, a 41-year-old Ethiopian immigrant with limited English, said the attackers shook his cab to try to turn it over. ‘I was thinking they can kill me. That’s all I was thinking. They burned the car,’ said Teferi, who has been in the United States for nine years and has been a taxi driver for seven years. Leiweke said the taxi was covered by the cab company’s insurance, so AEG decided to give the money to Teferi. ‘I was more concerned about Abraham because he doesn’t have insurance to pay for his food and his house and his livelihood,’ Leiweke said. ‘We’re asking everyone to use Abraham as an example of how we can celebrate together without having to go burn things up,’ he added.”