NYC transit impostor released from jail
Darius McCollum is a frequent flyer at DU, in the sense that there have been a few threads about him earlier. As a railfan, I know a little bit about Asperger syndrome. If there's one trait that shows up over and over in railfans, it's Asperger's.
NYC transit impostor released from jail
http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/NYC-transit-impostor-released-from-jail-5092311.php
By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press
Updated 12:04 pm, Wednesday, December 25, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) A man arrested more than two dozen times for posing as a transit worker to steal buses and trains in New York City and drive the routes has been paroled. ... Darius McCollum was released Tuesday night, after pleading guilty earlier this year to stealing a Trailways bus in 2010, when he was arrested behind the wheel on the highway that leads to Kennedy International Airport.
He had faced up to 15 years if convicted at a trial, but the Queens district attorney and his lawyer worked out a deal: McCollum will voluntarily enter a program to undergo cognitive behavioral therapy. He was diagnosed with what was until recently called Asperger's syndrome but is now referred to as an autism spectrum disorder, and his repeated arrests stem in part from it.
....
McCollum, 49, had the subway map memorized by the time he was 8, and tried unsuccessfully to get a job with the transit system. Instead he became a transit impostor and has been arrested 29 times. But he is not a violent criminal he just drives the routes, fixes tracks and takes tolls without an official job until he's caught by police.
McCollum has become a celebrity for escapades that began at age 15, when he piloted a subway train six stops without any passengers noticing. He grew up in Queens near a station serving two Metropolitan Transportation Authority lines, and learned the mechanics of the transit system from workers who took an interest in him.