A cab driver said a man pointed a gun in his face during in a dispute over the fare and caused a standoff at a Seattle apartment.

Seattle police said the driver picked up a woman in Shoreline and drove her to Aurora Avenue and 140^th Street at about 3:44 a.m.

When they arrived, she said she didn’t have money to pay the driver the $37 fare,  but her boyfriend inside the apartment did.  

Police spokesman Jeff Kappel said the woman left her coat in the cab when she went inside, and shortly after, a 26-year-old man emerged, pointed a gun at the driver and demanded the coat.

“I said, ‘Sir, you’re not going to pay me?’  He had some choice words about that, pointed the gun at me again and then went back into the apartment,” said driver Scott Nilsen.

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The man took the coat without paying and was believed to have went inside the apartment.

When police arrived, they talked to the man on the phone, but he later stopped responding to calls and SWAT officers were called in.  Some neighboring apartments were evacuated as a precaution.

Officers  surrounded the apartment, and more than five hours later, went inside to find the apartment empty.

The man's 22-year-old girlfriend was arrested for investigation of theft.

The man is still at large.