Gothamist: Subway Stealing Legend Arrested Again

R

Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:40:27 -0500

We have been in the news a fair amount lately (the NYTimes again and NY Newsday), but for a sad reason. Darius McCollum, the infamous train thief, but who upon his last parole had started to become a member of our community here in NYC, didn't make it to a few meetings and fell off his own special brand of wagon, infiltrating a train yard in Queens where he was arrested on the spot. Lori Shery of ASPEN in New Jersey is working hard on his behalf and we're helping out to a moderate degree, but Darius is someone we know to have been wrongly incarcerated before, and now they may throw a homeland security type of sentence at him for the level of security the train yard was supposed to have (we're hearing from Darius' former legal aid lawyer that the DA may seek 15-life). This is horrible stuff, perpetuated by horrible ignorance Michael John Carley Executive Director GRASP The Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, Inc. www.grasp.org (under construction-opening SOON, we hope!)

joe

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:33:17 -0500

Holy crap. Can somebody get this poor bastard some help?

Subway Jared

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 15:51:15 -0500

The MTA should definitely hire him. He'd be their ideal employee. I think the MTA already has some wacky metrophiles conducting the trains. Think about it: you've all heard one of those occasional wacky conductors that tell you the oldschool names of the lines (IRT, BMT, etc), whether their platforms are upstairs or down, the nearby tourist attractions and every single connection to the LIRR, Metro North or PATH, the time of day, the temparature outside, while saying "All aboard!", all in one breath. Tell me those guys aren't just a little crazy.

Dirk

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 11:57:06 -0500

This story gives me a lot of confidence in the MTA's security procedures.

----

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 11:16:00 -0500

the mta should just give him a job as a mototman.

pjh

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 10:41:15 -0500

jake - "i mean, if a borderline autistic can get his hands on the keys, who else already has?" not to split hairs, but I am always amazed at just how resourceful and dedicated an individual with borderline autism can be once they set their mind to something. The bar may be a bit higher than you think in this case. But this is just my experience.

jake

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 10:14:31 -0500

i hope they don't throw the book at him for revealing just how crappy MTA security really is. i mean, if a borderline autistic can get his hands on the keys, who else already has?

pjh

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 09:29:19 -0500

...a possible problem for homeland security?.....3 keys and clothes?.....this is no good....yes the man is extremely passionate and unbelievably detail oriented but so are our friendly neighborhood religous fanatics