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Caught Stealing
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 18, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 18, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The Observer goes all crime blotter - yes, all the incidents seem to take place on the Upper East Side - today and lead with a stonecold crime. A woman got her handbag stuck in the doors of a 6 train (an out-of-towner - go figure!)
Fortunately, there are people employed to push you onto the train and help you extricate your personal property in just such an emergency. Unfortunately, they work on the Ginza line of the Tokyo subway system, not for New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Instead, in this case, an unknown male remaining on the platform approached the subway and started to rifle through his victim’s bag. He held onto the handbag, opened it and removed her property—all while the woman was trying to pull her pocketbook to safety. Before she managed to free it, the thief absconded with a $100 Vidal Sassoon gift card, a $120 Metro-North 10-pack of tickets and her ladies’ Cole Haan wallet, in addition to her driver’s license and credit cards.
That is just stonecold! If only there was an intrepid fellow straphanger who could take a photograph of the thief - maybe the NYPD could cross check that with anyone getting a new coif at Vidal Sassoon.
If something is stolen from you on the subway, we guess you'd contact the transit police or NYPD - we haven't found a clearcut page on the MTA website that explaisn what to do. And this fetching, "leather-like" handbag is available from the Transit Museum Store - just $34.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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