MISC | Crime on public transit

[fbeavis]

How safe is the public transit system in your area? Have you ever witnessed any crime in a conveyance or on transit property like at a station?

[rakcancer]

Couple of months ago in NYC subway station at 50th st I saw guy grabbing someone's iPhone while that person was using it. The victim was trying to chase the thief. While he was running after him he was stopped and blocked himself by another guy ,I guess helper of the thief, by making him caged in the turnstile. Eventually he freed himself after few seconds and went up on the stairs to catch the guy. It was so unreal and quick. I don't know how it ended.

[quashlo]

- Someone tried to steal my iPhone on BART. They failed, and I chased the prick out of the station. If I wasn't in dress shoes and work attire with briefcase in hand, I probably could have caught the brat. His co-perp got another guy's iPhone though.

- A group of middle school kids brought something on-board my bus hidden inside a backpack, I think a weapon or something. Everyone was getting ready to get off the bus at a major stop, but immediately as the rear doors opened, the group of policemen started boarding the bus, guns pointing. Of course, everyone promptly rushed off at that point.

- Tagging. I don't know if it's gotten substantially better since I now generally avoid Muni like the plague, but when I was a kid, taggers would have no qualms about bombing the inside of a crowded bus in broad daylight, windows, roofs, panels, etc. These were the more dangerous lines anyways, so you don't get yourself involved, especially if you have kids... Just sit quietly, pretending you don't see anything.

- Petty stuff like fare evasion (turnstile jumping, rear-door boarding, etc.).

[lintonschoice]

I live in Charlotte NC and we have a light rail that goes by the Bobcats arena. Their have been a few robberies at knifepoint and 1 rape. People should carry some kind of pepper spray with them when they use this mode of transportation.

[HARTride 2012]

I've witnessed several instances where unruly (often drunk) people try to cause an altercation at bus stops (Tampa, FL, US) and subway stations (New York City, NY, US). In one instance, this drunk homeless man threatened to throw a beer bottle at a lady and the police had to be called in.

[Svartmetall]

Tagging occasionally is the only real problem I've encountered in Stockholm. It's safe, well policed and has a good amount of security cameras if anything does go wrong.

[hkskyline]

In Hong Kong, graffiti and vandalism are very rare but since the trains get very crowded, sexual assaults are the main concern. Ironically, pickpocketing doesn't seem to be a problem. There have been discussions of setting up women-only cars like in Japan but I haven't heard much of the outcome lately.

[Dimethyltryptamine]

Late at night, when the trains aren't busy, you risk getting bashed for valuables, or for the sake of being bashed... (same goes for train stations). Other than that, mainly tagging on seats/windows, etc.

[Blackraven]

One of my Nokia phones got stolen back in year 2009. As soon as I noticed that my Jabra bluetooth headset wasn't picking up any signal, that's when I started to get worried and checking on my pocket, it was gone.

[Minato ku]

Theft of smartphone (often with violence), pickpocketing, vandalism are frequent on Paris metro.
I have never witnessed any crime in Paris transport but the Paris police departement advice to be careful with smartphone.

There are sonor annoncement in French, English, Japanese, Spanish, German about it and also about pickpocket.



Bus driver assault are also quite common unfortunalely.

[SydneyCity]

I've been threatened with violence by a junkie teenage girl with a pram who claimed she would "smash my face in" if I didn't move my bicycle from the doorway, but in reality all she did was spit on me.

I've witnessed graffiti being done a couple of times both on trains and at stations.