In the annals of crazy cabbie credit card horror stories, this one stands out from the pack. An unidentified Hoboken man says a New York cab driver sprayed him in the face with an unknown chemical substance when he tried to pay with a credit card. The victim told police he hailed the cab early Sunday morning after a work function in NYC Saturday night. The Star-Ledger reports that the man told the driver he had no cash, only a credit card, and the driver said it wouldn't be a problem. more ›

Taxi TV is ear-shattering enough but at least there's an easily accessible "off" button. Sometimes, however, your driver may provide the entertainment. As part of the Taxicab Rider Bill of Rights, passengers have a right to control the volume of music—it states you have the right to "a noise free trip: no horn honking or radio." But, you know, it happens... and sometimes (like when alcohol is involved, mostly) it can even be sort of fun to whip through the city streets with a stranger behind the wheel while the music is turned up to 11. But not all the time. One man took this below video from the back seat of a cab this week to document the volume of the music the cab driver was playing—turns out you can go past 11 on the volume control! more ›

A day after four people were injured when a cab jumped the curb in Midtown, another hack hopped the curb in Murray Hill this morning, hitting a man and woman and sending the man through a glass door of a nail salon. Around 9:47 a.m., "The taxi came up on the sidewalk and crushed the window," the owner of Hair and Spa Party told the Post. "It was kind of like a movie. He [the victim] was half in and half out." According to DNAinfo, four people in total were injured, and three were taken to Bellevue Hospital, two of them with serious injuries. more ›

Cops have arrested the man who allegedly bit cabbie Haroon Rashid's ear in Midtown earlier this month, weeks after the New York Taxi Workers Alliance complained that the police didn't care about cabbies. more ›

Following a string of violent attacks against cab drivers (think knifes, teeth) in recent weeks, New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers spokesperson Fernando Mateo is asking the police to do more to keep cabbies safe, comparing cab crime to terrorism. more ›

Cabbies, be careful! A cab driver claims that a passenger attacked him over a $7 fare argument, chomping down on the driver's ear so hard that 11 stitches were needed to close the wound. On top of that, when the driver called the cops, they allegedly told him he would be arrested if he filed a complaint. more ›

A 32-year-old cabbie was fatally stabbed Thursday night during an altercation with another cab driver over a fare. 35-year-old Christopher Heron has been charged with the second degree murder of William Mena, after the pair allegedly fought about picking up a customer at Franklin Square in Nassau County. more ›

With gas prices on the rise, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance hasn't been quiet about wanting to discuss a fare hike with the TLC. And now they've announced exactly what they are hoping for. In addition to the already discussed $.10 rate increase for stuck traffic (from $.40 to $.50 per minute) and a per-mile increase from $2 to $2.40, they are also asking for a $1 morning rush hour commute surcharge and an increase in the flat rate for trips between Manhattan and JFK from $45 to $55. more ›

The cab driver who refused to take customers to the Bronx and then got arrested after allegedly driving his cab into them was arraigned on assault charges yesterday. And it turns out that Mohammed Azam has a history of being a bad taxi driver— and he was just trying to avoid paying a $30 fee. more ›

Remember the story of Tony Chan, the Chinese feng shui grifter who got taken for an $800,000 cab ride to Teterboro? Well, nearly three years after Chan gave his AmEx card to driver Peter Rahhaoui (who then used it as if it were his own and he were very, very rich) the case came to a close yesterday when the hack pled guilty rather than send his lawyers to China to depose Chan. Meanwhile, Chan has bigger fish to fry as he fights for his late paramour's fortune (which he previously tried to get with a forged will). more ›

One of the cabbies charged with over-charging his fares is settling in for a fight. Since the TLC didn't seem interested in his claims of a cabal of cabbies plotting to scam their passengers ("I met a series of drivers who decided to rob the public," he told them in September. "They were actually having meetings at my old garage."), Joseph Kastner is planning to fight the charges in court. more ›

We were just beginning to recover from the knowledge that soon our sexy cab drivers might not be able to show their stuff in tube tops anymore, and now City Room drops the bomb that the TLC is planning to eliminate even more "obscure" rules. Except this time, one of the rules doesn't seem too ridiculous. more ›

When you're a feng shui master whose bold attempt to seize the $4 billion estate of a late client-turned-lover essentially made all of Hong Kong hate you, is it karma when you get taken for a ride by a Queens limo driver? Well, that's what happened to Tony Chan, an infamous Hong Kong "boy toy", who was charged nearly $800,000 after taking a car service from Teterboro Airport to NYC. more ›

A cab driver was "slugged" and robbed after he—gasp—asked his fares for payment. According to the Post's NYPD Blotter, the driver had taken three men from West 41st and Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue and East 35th Street: "[All] three passengers got out without paying, cops said. The driver grabbed the fare-beaters and demanded his cash," but then Mike Nguyen, 25, allegedly hit him and took his cellphone. The driver then called the police, who arrested Nguyen for assault and petit larceny. more ›

It sometimes seems like no good deed goes unpunished when it comes to the NYPD: Officer Adrian Schoolcraft was hounded and discredited for coming forward about quotas in the force, and several off-duty cops have gotten away with drunk driving cover-ups. Today the Village Voice reports on another such cover-up, which took the reputation and dignity away from one diligent police officer. more ›

While we were stuck with a guy with no license photo who kept running red lights over the weekend, a pair of Swiss tourists managed to find a generous cab driver who made sure they could return to their homeland. Daniel Hasler and Valeria Zapata arrived at a Brooklyn B&B from JFK on Wednesday night when they realized they had left a bag containing $700 in cash, a $500 camera, an iPhone, an iPod, credit cards and Zapata's Swiss residency card in the cab. Luckily for them, driver Kashmir Singh had no desire to disguise himself as a woman and move to Switzerland. more ›

Last week, 50 of the worst taxi drivers were arrested for egregiously scamming passengers by overcharging them with out-of-city rates when the fares were just traveling within NYC. The lead offender, Santiago Rossi, pocketed over $11,000; he told the Post, "I did it for the gas money," and said the first overcharged was by accident but "It became a habit." He complained about the meters, "Why didn't the TLC know about the vulnerabilities [of the meters]?" and called the arrests "the TLC's way of not accepting any of the blame for what was happening. They're going to blame the cab drivers and then wash their hands like Pontius Pilate." more ›

The 21-year-old film student accused of slashing a taxi cab driver—after asking him if the driver was Muslim—will have to be stay behind bars for a while longer. The AP reports, "A Manhattan judge said Monday he’ll decide at arraignment whether to grant bail for Michael Enright of Brewster, N.Y... His attorney says Enright suffers from post-traumatic stress and chronic alcoholism." Enright, who allegedly muttered to cabbie Ahmed Sharif, "Consider this a checkpoint," was moved from Rikers to Bellevue's psych ward last month. Enright was charged with attempted murder and assault as hate crimes and his arraignment is on September 25. The Justice Department is also investigating the incident. more ›

What is it about the backseat of a taxi that makes it feel like an anything-goes confessional? Or perhaps that is just the case for this crazed and none too murder-savvy Queens woman, Veronica Escalona, 54, who was arrested on Wednesday in a sting set up by the cab driver to whom she announced, "I want him dead!" 'Him,' of course, being her maybe-unfaithful husband. more ›

Despite what most Gothamist commenters would have you believe, New York cab drivers are on the whole decent, honest people just trying to earn a living like everyone else. In the wake of the recent cabbie scandal, one Daily News reporter set out to see how many drivers really take tourists the long way to their destinations, and it turns out most are pretty helpful. more ›

Cabbie Hassan Afzal was sentenced to five years probation for causing the accident that killed 20-year-old Danielle Ricco in 2006. Though he initially denied the accident was his fault, Afzal later admitted that he had stopped taking his seizure medication, and a seizure caused him to go unconscious while driving and crash his cab on the West Side Highway. Ricco's family had no sympathy for the driver today, saying at the sentencing, "You ruined enough lives by your carelessness, if that’s what it was, and I hope you live knowing this every day of the rest of your life." more ›

As data rolls in, the Taxi and Limousine Commission says its $8.3 million estimate of overcharging by scamming cabbies "will shrink significantly." Much has been made of how drivers pressed a suburban rate button on their meters, charging passengers twice the normal city rate. But now TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus says many cabbies did so accidentally, and only at the end of trips when fares had already been calculated (they may have been trying to turn meters off, investigators think). "How can you overcharge a person at the end of a ride when you don't get money for it?" asked Daus at a City Council hearing yesterday. more ›

Where is Buffy Summers when you need her? The police are looking for a man who, while allegedly trying to rob a cabbie last Saturday, repeatedly sunk his teeth into the cabbie's body to get the cash. more ›

After news that 75% of cabbies had overcharged passengers at least once, some drivers are worried: Osman Chowdhury, who returned $500,000 of diamond rings left in a bag back to a passenger, told the Daily News. "I feel very ashamed [of cheating drivers], When you're driving, people now look at you and think you're going to do something bad. The bad thing becomes the issue, and then the good things drivers do are forgotten." more ›

The Taxi and Limousine Commission says that about 36,000 cab drivers gouged passengers on their trips, resulting in millions of excessive fares. The NY Times reports, "The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip. The drivers, officials said, flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million." more ›

Bank robber Robert Krieg and his 32-year-old accomplice John Gregg rode in cabs to some of the banks they held up, and had drivers run the meter while they made off with the money. Taking cabs allowed them to get around town fast and made for a quick getaway but, at least for Krieg, it ultimately led to arrest after a cabbie commandeered his ID and described him to the cops. more ›

The era of cabbies loudly yammering on their cell phones should officially end tomorrow, with the enforcement of the TLC's new penalties beginning for any driver caught using electronic devices. Any driver not legally parked and found using any electronic device—iPods, cellphones, satellite radios and GPS devices—will be fined $200 and be sent to a "rules refresher" course. A second infraction means a suspended license, and a third gets it revoked. So what will this mean for passengers? more ›

On Sunday night, a livery cab driver was killed in the Bronx. It turned out that Jose Peña-Segura's suspected killer was a man on parole for attempted murder: Benny Delgado, 31, who was caught while fleeing the scene, "has more than 20 arrests on his rap sheet" and was "released from prison in 2007 after serving 12 years on an attempted murder conviction," according to the Daily News. Now Delgado has allegedly confessed to the murder, saying that he and a friend named Jason called Peña-Segura to exact revenge—a Bronx prosecutor read Delgado's statement, "Jason was upset because Jose's associate took some pills from him but didn't pay. We weren't able to find Jose's associate, so I went after the next person. I told Jose to go to an address that I knew was fake. When we arrived, I shot him in the back of the head." And in the process of questioning, Delgado also admitted to shooting another man (a heroin dealer) in the Bronx, "[John Latigua] said he didn't give a f--- about us dope fiends. I then took out my gun and shot him in the chest." more ›

You'll be forgiven for not realizing that it's actually illegal for NYC cab drivers to use cell phones—even hands-free—because they all do it. This morning the Times takes a look at chatty cabbies as part of an ongoing series of articles called "Driven to Distraction." Surprisingly, a reporter assigned to ride in cabs as research found that only about one third of his 20 taxi rides featured a driver using his or her cell phone. Almost all of them terminated the call when asked—except for one hack who pulled over and grumbled about a stalled engine. more ›

An undercover cop who falsely identified an innocent cab driver as an ecstasy dealer has cost taxpayers $1.5 million. Yesterday lawyers for the city agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by 34-year-old hack Jesus Diaz Delossantos, who was arrested and jailed for 9 months in 2002 on charges of selling 100 Ecstasy tablets to an undercover police officer. According to Newsday, Delossantos' lawyer proved the officer wasn't even working the day he claimed Delossantos sold him 100 ecstasy tablets, and that Delossantos did not even fit the description of the man who sold the drugs. His lawyer tells the Daily News, "These cops were bad guys. They were untruthful." Crazy, right? Delossantos, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, says, "This is the end of a very ugly part of my life." more ›