Subway Robberies Up, Murders Down, CSI Actor Mugged

According to NYPD statistics, overall subway crime dropped by 3% in 2008, with murders down to two from four in 2007. There were an average 6.3 major felonies a day last year, compared with 7.4 in 2006 (there was an average of 17 in 1997). But robberies are on the rise: 823 occurred last year, up from 796 in '07. And there were three rapes reported last year, as opposed to just one in '07. Still, the NYPD's John Hall tells the Post crime is "so low that it's getting more and more difficult to keep it there," and attributes the stats to a crackdown on people walking between moving cars, which criminals do when trolling for victims.

Speaking of victims, CSI star Gerald McCullouch recently became one himself, when he made the breathtakingly stupid decision to take the A train home from JFK at 2 a.m. while working on his laptop and listening to "blaring" music on his headphones. The only thing missing was a neon sign above his head flashing "JUMP ME!", but that hardly proved necessary; soon one James Torres (6-foot-3, 240 pounds) took the bait, and allegedly tried to grab the laptop. McCullouch thwarted Torres with "a body shot to the chest," and described the ensuing fight to the Daily News:

I don’t know why I did that except that I box three or four days a week and had just been in the ring about eight hours before. Also, I didn’t want to give up my computer after working on my video all that time. Well, that’s when he pulled a kitchen knife out of a black plastic bag. This thing must have had a blade 10 inches long.

The other passengers started running out the door and into the next car. I still had my headphones on with music blaring. I yelled at the top of my lungs, "Get the [bleep] away from me!" That’s when the knife came down into my back. I don’t know whether he lost his grip or what, but the blade didn’t penetrate my leather jacket.