NEW YORK — New York police are seeking a woman who allegedly broke into a parked New York City Transit subway train today (Thursday, July 17) and took it for a one-stop joy ride — at least the fourth such incident since January 2024.
The news site Gothamist reports the incident occurred about 4:30 a.m. when a woman, described only as having red dreadlocks, entered the N line train at the Broadway station in Astoria, Queens, and took it to the 36th Street station before vanishing. Police do not know how she entered the locked train.
Previously, six suspects were alleged to have stolen a train, taken it for a joyride at up to 30 mph, and posted video of their actions on line [see “Police seek suspects …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 29, 2025]. Two juvenile suspects were arrested the following month [see “Two arrested for stealing …,” News Wire, Feb. 3, 2025]. NYC Transit said at that time that it was pursuing several measures to prevent similar acts, including adding devices that would trigger emergency stops on trains moved from layover tracks and adding alarms both on trains and on the board tracking train movemenets.
Similar incidents also occurred in January and September of 2024.
Given NY’s “no bail laws” and NYC’s reluctance to punish all but the worst crimes, I expect we’ll hear about similar incidents in the future.
Perhaps installing locked derails on tracks with stored trains would help.
So is it the policy of the MTA to leave the various operating devices in the MTA cabs?
With qualifications, the woman could have simply apply for a train operator position with MTA.
This is what happens when MTA removes the signal trip system from some routes.