Cab Drivers

NEW YORK -- Fifty-three cab drivers, nearly all of them born half a world away, became entrepreneurs yesterday as the winning bidders in New York City's first sale of new taxi medallions since the Depression.To the drivers, the prize was nothing short of the essential promise of America: the chance to go into business for themselves after years of working for others.The successful bidders, most from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, had offered up to $177,000 for the right to work mind-numbing, 70-hour weeks for an income that rarely exceeds $30,000 a year.

A man threw a rock at the windshield of a taxicab after the driver asked the man and a companion to confirm that they had called him to the 1800 block of Richfield Drive in Severn, county police said yesterday.The rock caused $100 worth of damage, police said. George Miser, a driver for AA Taxi Service in the 300 block of Telegraph Road, was not injured, police said.Police said Mr. Miser got a call to pick up a fare at the Richfield Drive address about 6: 45 p.m. When he got there, two men approached and asked for a ride, police said.

A cab driver was robbed Friday by a purported customer who put a gun to the driver's head and demanded cash, countypolice said.Donald Blair, 37, a driver for Associated Taxi, was not hurt in the incident.Police said Mr. Blair went to Warwickshire Lane in Glen Burnie to pick up a fare shortly before midnight. A man got into his car, pulled out a semiautomatic pistol, pointed it at Mr. Blair's head and demanded money, police said.Mr. Blair complied, and the man ran away. Police searched for the bandit but did not find him. They have no description of the gunman.

Two women have been charged in the fatal shooting of a cab driver during a robbery attempt last night in the 1100 block of Woodbourne Ave.Pronounced dead at the scene from at least one .32-caliber bullet wound to the head was David W. Tidwell, 47, of the first block of Left Wing Drive in the Aero Acres section of southeastern Baltimore County.The victim had driven for the Overlea Cab Co. for about four months.Homicide detective Walter Akers said that he had recovered more than $200 from the driver's pockets and that it had appeared the man was killed before he could be robbed.

I CAN'T ever get a cab after [Orioles] games," said the San JTC Francisco businessman. "What's wrong with you guys? Why don't you come to Camden Yards?"

Annapolis police arrested three teen-agers Wednesday and charged them as adults with attempted murder in the shooting of a city cab driver.Toreceo Java Wells, 15, of the first block of Bens Drive; James Edward Smith, 17, of the first block of Bens Drive; and Shawn Anthony Pollard, 15, of the first block of Victory Parkway also have been charged with assault with intent to commit robbery and using a handgun in the commission of a felony. They are being held without bond in the county jail.

An Annapolis cab driver was in critical but stable condition yesterday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center after being shot in the head during an attempted robbery Tuesday night.Stewart Owens Cole, a driver for Colonial Cab, told police he picked up three men in the area of Bay Ridge Gardens Apartments about 9 p.m. and drove them to the 1000 block Tallwood Road, where one of them announced the robbery, police said. Soon afterward, one of the men shot him in the back of the head.Mr. Cole, 44, lost control of the cab and ran off the road.

A city man was arrested yesterday on charges of critically wounding a cab driver during a carjacking. Police said he also exchanged two shots with a police officer and led police on a chase through the streets of Northeast Baltimore.Kevin S. Jackson, 37, of the 1200 block of North Ave., was charged with two counts of assault with intent to kill. Police said he shot cabbie Norman W. Lennon, 56, of the 9800 block of Tolworth Circle in Randallstown about 2:15 p.m. yesterday.Witnesses told police that a man pulled Mr. Lennon from his cab at 33rd Street and Loch Raven Boulevard.

Drivers for a city-cab company were collecting money today to help fellow-driver Harry Lewis, whom police accuse of hunting down and shooting a teen-ager he said robbed him early Monday in West Baltimore.Harry Lewis, whose boss at Royal Cab Co. described him as "a soft-spoken, hard-worker," was being held in the City Jail on $30,000 bail on a charge of assault with intent to murder.He was awaiting a bail review today in Baltimore District Court. How much money was taken was not disclosed.

A B&R cab driver was robbed of $70 and the keys to his cab Friday night by a man who threatened to "blow his head off" after being taken to Fourth Avenue and Marshall Road, county police said.Thomas D. Wood, 37, had picked up a fare about 8:40 p.m. Friday night at a Giant Food store located on Ritchie Highway at Shelly Road. The man asked Mr. Wood to take him to the 200 block of Fourth Ave.Upon their arrival, the passenger placed an object against the right side of Mr. Wood's neck. "This is a robbery, man. Give me the keys," the suspect reportedly told Mr. Wood.