Serial Transit Scofflaw Arrested in Brooklyn for Stealing Greyhound Bus
Darius McCollum, a legendary thief who has been arrested 29 times for transit-related offenses, was picked up again in Brooklyn Wednesday, the New York Post reports—this time for stealing a Greyhound bus from the Port Authority depot.
The 50-year-old, who was was first busted at the age of 15 for driving an E train (with people on it) from 34th Street-Penn Station down to the World Trade Center. Apparently, nobody noticed.
The Greyhound McCollum stole on Wednesday arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal around 11 am this morning, police told CBS New York, and was scheduled to leave for Virginia at 2:15 pm:
At 1:30 p.m. Greyhound realized the bus was missing, police said. Ten minutes later, they called their transportation command headquarters Texas, which was able to detect the bus through an onboard GPS, police said.
The GPS tracker found that the bus was on the road in Brooklyn, police said. Greyhound called the NYPD Communications section, which issued an alert to the 78th Precinct where the bus was detected, police said.
Officers from the 78th Precinct Anti-Crime team found and pulled over the bus at Third Avenue and Union Street around 4 p.m., police said.
Nobody was on the bus when police arrested McCollum. “I’m stealing a plane next,” he allegedly told detectives, according to the Post.
McCollum, who has been diagnosed with what is commonly known as Asperger’s syndrome but which mental-health experts now refer to as autism spectrum disorder, has reportedly spent a third of his life in prison on transit-related charges.
He is being held at a police station in Park Slope, PIX 11 reports.
Image via PIX 11. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.