Limo

When the November issue of Conde Nast Traveler came out with a cover that announced a feature on how to survive a short stay in Philadelphia, we naturally ripped it open. They pretty much got it right, as they should. (After all, the magazine's motto is "Truth In Travel. ") After tossing accolades to the Four Seasons ("a much-needed touch of class"), The Rittenhouse ("you may want to conduct your business from the bathroom") and the Hotel Atop the Bellevue ("still a little unpolished but worth considering")

While ensconced in the plush upholstery of a white stretch limousine, police said yesterday, James Ruiz opened fire on a convertible in Old City, fatally wounding a teen-ager with whom he had quarreled. A passenger in the back seat of the convertible, Eugenio Laboy, 17, of 5th Street near Dauphin, was hit in the forehead Sunday morning. He died yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Ruiz, 20, of 10th Street near Washington Avenue, was seized at his home Sunday and charged with assault and other offenses.

A North Philadelphia man and his five teenage friends - who rode in a white stretch limousine to Waterbury, Conn., terrorized a family there and shot up an unoccupied car - were being held yesterday in New Jersey after their arrest en route home from the rampage, police said. Wilfred Cintron, 21, of the 2800 block of North Mutter Street, and his companions were taken into custody by state police Wednesday following a high- speed chase from a rest-stop on the New Jersey Turnpike near New Brunswick.

The prosecutor called the beating and torture of a woman limousine driver in a West Philadelphia abandoned building last Aug. 2 "a barbaric act. " Assistant District Attorney David Novak said when the two attackers ordered a limo sent to the building on Lancaster Avenue near 41st Street, "they asked for a female driver so they could easily overpower her. " Edward "Chip" Jones, 26, of 58th Street near Springfield Avenue, who pleaded guilty...

A woman limousine driver suffered permanent injuries because a couple of punks wanted to drive around in a big car and "satisfy their egos," the prosecutor said. Yesterday, Common Pleas Judge Frederica A. Massiah-Jackson sentenced Edward "Chip" Jones, 27, of 58th Street near Springfield Avenue, to 6 to 12 years in prison for his role in the Aug. 2, 1989, beating and robbery of Elizabeth Golden. "I'm sorry," Jones said. "That ain't my kind of life. " On Monday, Massiah-Jackson sentenced the alleged "mastermind" of the crime, Charles Brown, 21, of Aspen Street near 35th, to 17 1/2 to 35 years in prison.

Al Belch leaned against his wine-colored stretch limousine on Broad Street last night, eyeing his watch while the Flyers battled the Edmonton Oilers inside the Spectrum. Who were Belch's clients, wealthy VIPs here for the big game? Guess again. "Four kids, none of 'em over 21, here for the concert," Belch said, pointing toward Veterans Stadium, where Phil Collins and Genesis were rocking away. Belch was one of scores of limo drivers cashing in on the latest trend among young adults and teens: Riding to the rock show in a limousine.

RENO, Nev. - Former NFL quarterback Jim McMahon and two others were injured yesterday when a limousine crashed through a fence south of Reno, the Nevada Highway Patrol said. The Nevada Highway Patrol said the accident happened around 2 p.m. on U.S. 395. The limo was heading north when it left the four-lane highway and crashed through a wire fence, Trooper Mike Edgell said. "Right now he's in a lot of pain," Edgell said later yesterday. He described McMahon's injuries as "non-incapacitating.

A white stretch limo swung off Delaware Avenue onto a small side street in Fishtown early yesterday morning, slowed long enough to dump a woman's bullet- riddled corpse and then sped away, homicide detectives said. The body of Caroline Redman, 32, was discovered about 1:30 a.m. in the first block of East Laurel Street by police summoned to the scene by witnesses. Investigators said that Redman, of Kensington, was pronounced dead at the scene, about three blocks south of Girard Avenue.

Jimmy Ruiz, 20, of 10th Street near Washington Avenue, was held without bail yesterday and ordered to stand trial on murder and aggravated assault charges in the Old City murder of Peter Laboy, 17, on July 16. Assistant District Attorney Joseph LaBar said at a preliminary hearing that Laboy, of 5th Street near Susquehanna Avenue, was shot in the head while sitting in the back seat of a car that had pulled up next to a white stretch limousine on...

IN THE FALL of 2010, limousine-company operator Bassam Salaheldein wanted help. And, as federal prosecutors tell it, he was willing to bribe to get it. Salaheldein, 40, of Rhawnhurst, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to conspiracy to commit bribery. He could face up to five years in a federal lockup when he is sentenced Nov. 27. The government's plea memo said he wanted the manager of the Philadelphia Parking Authority's taxi-enforcement division to let him select his vehicles to be inspected, and to "pass" vehicles unfit to be driven and a driver who had failed a licensing exam.

A woman attacked a limousine driver at knifepoint and stole his vehicle Tuesday night in the city's Crescentville section, but was later tracked down by police using a GPS system located in the car. Around 7 p.m., the 2010 Chrysler 300 with limousine tags had arrived to pick up a taxi fare in the 700 block of Adams Avenue when a 30-year-old woman jumped into the backseat, Chief Inspector Scott Small said. The woman put a knife to the 40-year-old driver's throat and ordered him to get out of the car, Small said.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A stretch limousine that burst into flames on a San Francisco Bay bridge, killing five women inside, was carrying one too many passengers, investigators said Monday. The state Public Utilities Commission had authorized the vehicle to carry eight or fewer passengers, but it had nine on the night of the fire, California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Maskarich said. He did not comment on whether the overcrowding may have been a factor in the deaths. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, and the vehicle has not yet been inspected, Maskarich said.

T HE S ILVER Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick got a surprise invite to the Oscars on Sunday, along with his wife , novelist Alicia Bessette. "It's something you see on TV your whole life and you never think you'll be trafficking in that world," Quick told me. "There's Quentin Tarantino , Bradley Cooper , Jamie Foxx . You're not just an observer, you're talking about your next project, you're part of the game. " "There's still that kid that grew up in Oaklyn [N.J.]

ROBERT PATTINSON is moving on. At least moviewise. He uses "Cosmopolis" to obliterate his "Twilight" persona, that of the chaste, PG suitor who sublimates physical desire and, for the sake of love, waits until marriage (before turning his wife into a vampire). In the deeply R-rated "Cosmopolis," he's Ed Packer, a hedge-fund guy and a predatory philanderer who pesters his wife for sex, and, getting nowhere on that front, proceeds to engage women in the back seat of his limo, in full view of his security detail, one of whom he also beds.

In the fall of 2010, limousine company operator Bassam Salaheldein wanted some help. And, as federal prosecutors tell it, he was willing to pay bribes to get it. Salaheldein, 40, of Rhawnhurst, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to conspiracy to commit bribery. He could face up to five years in a federal lockup when he is sentenced on Nov. 27. The government's plea memo said Salaheldein wanted the manager of the Taxi Enforcement Division of the Philadelphia Parking Authority to allow him to self-select the vehicles in his fleet to be inspected, to "pass" vehicles unfit to be driven and to "pass" a driver who had failed a licensing exam.

This obiturary has been updated. TOM MAZZA really knew how to treat a customer. As the operator of a limousine service, Tom got the job of driving comedian Jerry Seinfeld around. Seinfeld came to Philly to do two shows at the Academy of Music in the summer of '92. Afterward, Tom drove Seinfeld to New York along with Mario Joyner, then-host of the MTV Comedy Hour. Seinfeld asked for food for the trip, so Tom provided a picnic hamper with china, glassware and silverware.

Police said Wednesday they arrested a man and a teen in the slaying of a limousine driver Monday night in the city's Feltonville section. Christopher Conway, 22, of Hunting Park, and a 15-year-old boy were charged with murder, robbery, and related offenses in the fatal shooting of Sabastian Nunez Suarez, 52, in the 4900 block of Bingham Street. Suarez, of Kensington, was shot in the head while sitting in the driver's seat. - Robert Moran

1 Man, 77, pulled from limo, stabbed Frankford Avenue near Torresdale A 77-year-old man was hospitalized Tuesday night after being stabbed in the abdomen at a red light by a man who pulled him from a limousine and attacked him about 6:20 p.m., police said. The victim told police that the man, wearing a black mask, pulled him from the vehicle and that the two argued before the attacker stabbed him, police said. The victim got back in the limousine and drove himself to Aria Healths Frankford hospital, police said.

"If any player ever asks me about playing in Philadelphia, what I thought it was and what it actually is, it's completely different. I've never had anyone yell at me. "   - Doc Halladay, The Inquirer, Feb. 22, 2012   In the dead of winter, circa 2002, in South Philadelphia, a stretch limo, windows darkened, purrs down Broad Street and slows to a crawl where a majestic new ballpark is rising and where...