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An NYPD drone captured footage of four children, including a 12-year-old, engaged in subway surfing in The Bronx last week. This incident marked the department’s 200th arrest for the risky activity since the police initiated a crackdown in 2023.
The footage, recorded by a police Technical Assistance Response Unit drone, shows the reckless youths, aged between 12 and 16, moving across the top of a northbound No. 6 train as it passed beneath the Westchester Avenue Bridge at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, according to the police.
The video depicts the group first climbing onto the train’s roof and positioning themselves in a line while pulling out their phones. The youngsters are then seen jumping and moving around on top of the speeding train.
The train was eventually stopped at the Parkchester station and held there until cops showed up and took the youngsters into custody and charged them with reckless endangerment, an NYPD rep said Tuesday.
“These apprehensions marked the 200th subway surfing apprehension by the Drone Team’s operations since deployment began in November of 2023, and 200 lives potentially saved in just the last 20 months,” the representative said in an email.
Subway surfing has been a dangerous and illegal urban trend in recent years, all too often leaving teen daredevils seriously injured or dead in the Big Apple.
On July 4, a 15-year-old boy was killed when he plunged off a southbound No. 7 train as it pulled into the Queensborough Plaza station around 2:45 a.m.
Last month, a teenager was left in critical condition while pulling off stunt in The Bronx, and a 24-year-old woman was killed when she was struck by a Manhattan train in separate transit tragedies.
As early as 2024, MTA officials pleaded with Big Apple parents to intervene and ensure that their kids wouldn’t be drawn into the potentially deadly trend.