Maybe the strangest part about this drunk-man-steals-occupied-limo story is that W. 4th St. and W. 10th St. really do intersect

Note W. 4th St. bending upward in Manhattan's West Village, at the left side of our map, to intersect with W. 10th St., W. 11th St., and -- yes, eventually -- W. 12th St!

by Ken

It seems like a pretty straightforward story of some drunk taking off in a limo that (oops!) had passengers sitting in the back and a few blocks later crashing (kerplunk!) into a car, bringing an end to the brief joyride. But look more closely at where our lad came to rest.

Drunk Man Steals Limo With Passengers Inside, Police Say

By Danielle Tcholakian on May 16, 2014 6:57am


DNAinfo NY caption: "A man jumped into this limo while it was idling and took off with passengers inside before crashing it, police said." No one was hurt, but the limo has probably looked better.

WEST VILLAGE — A group of limo riders was abducted when their driver left the luxury car unattended on a West Village street and someone else jumped in and drove off, police said.

The white stretch Lincoln Town Car was idling with five passengers inside at the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue South and West Fourth Street at 3:12 a.m. May 7 when Marwan Elbordiny, 24, took the wheel, according to the NYPD.

Elbordiny blew through a red light and raced several blocks before crashing into a car at West Fourth Street and West 10th Street, police said.

When police arrived, Elbordiny smelled of alcohol and he was flushed, glassy-eyed and unsteady on his feet, the NYPD said. He blew a .181 on a blood alcohol test, more than twice the legal driving limit of .08, police said.

The passengers were said to be scared, but unhurt.

Elbordiny was driving with a suspended license after receiving multiple previous moving violations, police said.

Elbordiny was arrested on charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle and is awaiting arraignment in New York Supreme Court on June 11. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

It sounds like an April Fool's joke, but there really is an intersection of W. 4th St. and W. 10th St.

It all has to do with fallout from the intersection -- along Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas on the map, but not to any real New Yorkers) -- of the old grid from what was then New York City's far-northern Hudson River-side suburb of Greenwich Village (when New York City was still huddled down at the lower tip of the island of Manhattan), and is now the West Village, with the grid imposed on most of the island up to 155th Street by the Commissioner's Plan of 1811.

Street names changed a lot over time, but it was presumably someone with a lively sense of humor who decided that west of Sixth Avenue (OK, OK, Avenue of the Americas), W. 4th St. would shoot more-or-less-northward on a collision course with W. 10th, 11th, and 12th Sts. It certainly didn't make for a happy landing for Marwan Elbordiny.

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