The attempted firebombing happened just before 5 p.m., during the busy evening commute at the Fulton Street subway station.
Surveillance video was released by police of the man right after the incident. He could be seen holding a Santa hat as he left the concourse.
Police say he got into some sort of argument with the attendant who was inside the token booth. They say he wrote a profanity-laced threat on the glass window before lighting multiple matches and throwing them into the booth's money slot.
He also lit a piece of paper on fire and threw it at the booth.
He was last seen heading toward to the A/C train platform.
Thankfully for the attendant, the token booths have had 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."
The suspect is described as Hispanic, approximately 6 feet tall and 300 pounds with black curly hair and a full beard that is graying around the chin. He was last seen wearing a long black trench coat, a black Nike zippered hooded sweatshirt, a black skullcap, dark blue sweatpants, and black sneakers.
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).
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