An unidentified man threatened an MTA worker in a lower Manhattan token booth before throwing lit matches through the money slot, according to police.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, April 25th, around 4:48 p.m. at the Fulton Street station. Investigators say the suspect got into a verbal dispute with the 44-year-old male token clerk, then threw a picture of a hangman at the MTA employee and wrote "F*ck you bitch" on the booth's window.
Images of the suspect (NYPD)
Then, police say, he lit multiple matches on fire, throwing them into the booth's money slot before lighting another piece of paper and throwing it at the booth.
Police say the man was last seen fleeing to the A/C platform. He is described as being about 6' and 300 pounds with black curly hair and a full beard that is graying around the chin. At the time of the incident was wearing a long black trench coat, a black Nike zippered hooded sweatshirt, a black skullcap, dark blue sweatpants, and black sneakers. The NYPD also released images and video of the suspect:
WABC 7 notes, "Thankfully for the attendant, the token booths have fire suppression systems in them ever since the mid-1990s when an MTA employee died in a fire bombing incident. It was set to mimic a scene from the 1995 Wesley Snipes movie, 'Money Train.'"
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
