Listen, I know you’re tired. You’ve had another long day in a neverending string of long days, and it’s such a struggle to keep your eyes open on your commute. But for your own sake, stay alert for just a little while longer, because your day is going to get a lot worse if you get robbed.
At an MTA committee meeting on Monday, NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Fox reported a 30% spike in felony transit crime during the month of April. According to the New York Post, “there were over 55 crimes against people snoozing underground last month, which made up 26 percent of all major felonies in transit.”
Fox says that subway riders are more comfortable letting their guard down by getting absorbed in their electronics or falling asleep than they have been in the past, because the subway is safer than it used to be. But he urged that caution is still required.
The Post cites two men arrested on subways last month, each in possession of multiple cell phones as well as other valuables like credit cards and watches, as examples of how crooks can clean up from sleeping straphangers.
If you need to drink a coffee before leaving work so you can stay awake on the way home, do it. New York’s safe, but it ain’t that safe.
(Photo: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork)
