A new type of crime on Muni?

Church street station
Photo by kurafire

Brian sends the following dispatch:

Just a quick note about a new (or new to me?) type of crime on Muni.

I was coming from from downtown yesterday on an M. I got off at the Church Station and started walking towards the back of the train on the platform when I noticed a guy standing on the edge of the platform very near the back of the train.. it almost looked like he was trying to hang on to the back or something. But then when I got closer I realized he was trying to open the window to the operator’s compartment on the back of the train. He succeeded in opening it and stuck his head and the upper part of his body in.. then he came out later with a few items.. possibly the stack of transfers and something else? He was definitely NOT a MUNI employee. Afterwards he just sort of walked away, nonchalant like nothing happened. I think most of the other people on the platform were confused like me.. thinking, “Wait, did that guy just break into a active train?”

We’re checking with SFMTA and SFPD about whether this has been reported. Stay tuned.

Have you seen anything like this?

8 comments

  • Michel_Baruch

    I saw the same thing. A cleanly bald African American male, late 40’s to early 50’s, 5’7″to 5’9″ tall. He did exactly as described above, then bolted out of the station before I could find someone to alert.

  • Sam

    I have seen something similar to this several times on the N-Judah.

    There’s a couple of gutterpunk kids (with a dog) that board on the back car. The male has a large ring of keys, one of which opened the unmanned cab. He opened the door, removed the book of transfers, and relocked the door. He offered a transfer to everyone within eyesight and then they exited at the next stop.

  • Jenn

    A couple months ago, a man boarded the back car at the Powell stop and leaned against the door of the empty cab. Right before the train stopped at Civic Center, he reached in through the open window and grab the book of transfers. He then got off like nothing happened, before anyone could say or do anything.

  • Vincent

    On Saturday evening, I boarded a L from Van Ness outbound and at Church Street, at the back of the train, a african american guy walked in the last door, checked that the drivers compartment window was closed and walked back out a second later and proceeded to the area near where the escalators were.

  • Rachel

    While recently riding the NYC Metro, I saw a sign warning people to not ride on the outside of the subway cars. This seems to be a deadly problem over there.

  • Rachel

    oops — wrong topic. sorry!

  • redseca2

    This plus the rear door boarders on the buses leaves me convinced the fare woudl be at most $1.00 if everyone actually paid.

  • Henry Larry

    Wow that sounds alarming. Hopefully SFMTA and SFPD can shed some light on this and prevent it from happening again.
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