12-year-old detained, teen sought after subway conductor punched in face in Brooklyn
PARK SLOPE, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A 12-year-old boy was detained, and another teen -- believed to be about 15 - is still being sought for allegedly punching a female subway train conductor in a robbery of her conductor keys.
The teens appear to have had their own set of subway keys to open the conductor's cab on a Manhattan-bound F train around 1 p.m. Monday.
Police say they punched the 51-year-old female conductor in the face and stole her keys.
The 12-year-old is a juvenile and was turned over to his parents. The other teen, who also appears to be a juvenile, remains at large.
The conductor's keys were dropped on the train tracks and recovered.
The conductor refused medical attention and is said to be OK.
In what has become an alarming trend, teens have been taking trains for joyrides then posting it on social media.
In January, 15 and 17-year-old boys were arrested after driving an R train more than 30 miles an hour under the streets of Sunset Park.
In September, two other teens were arrested for doing something similar in Queens.
"It's not acceptable when our conductors are attacked, anybody, any MTA employee attacked, we're gonna go crazy and making sure you go to jail," said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
The MTA says it has been putting locks on those doors and working on new technology to restrict access to conductor cabs.
"It's really time for biometrics, unfortunately these old trains, we need to have modern security systems on them, it's one of the things we're spending a lot of money on in the next capital program," Lieber said.
When asked when this technology would be in place, the MTA CEO said it is a priority.
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