Late reports from NYPD Transit Bureau Police that another Transit token booth arson was attempted, injuring the booth clerk. This occurred at the Union Ave.and Broadway station of the "G" train in Brooklyn.
At approximately 2200 hrs., EST, a male, with two accomplices, poured a flammable liquid into the aperture of the token booth, but did not ignited it. The group escaped from the scene. The booth clerk was removed to Woodhull Hospital by NYC*EMS, suffering from psychological trauma from the incident. It is unknown, at this late time, if the arrest were made at the immediate location, or somewhere distant from the subway station.
This was the fourth torching, or attempted torching, of a NYC Transit token booth in as many days, and the eighth in two weeks. On Sunday, December 10, Harry Kaufman, a 50-year-old booth clerk, died from his burns that resulted from a torching and attempted robbery of the booth he was working in on November 26. The suspects set the fire by pouring a flammable liquid into the coin chute of the booth. no arrests have been made as of yet.
The booth fire was compared to a scene from a recent movie, "The Money Train," which shows two robbers setting a similar fire. On December 9, at approximately 2100 hrs., EST, another booth fire was set in the NYC Borough of Queens. In this incident, the fire was quickly extinguished, and the booth clerk was not seriously injured, having escaped the booth before the fire took hold of the booth.
In yet another booth attack, a clerk escaped injury again when an unidentified assailant threw a lit match into a token booth at the Transit station at 4th Avenue and Union Street in the Borough of Brooklyn. This attacked occurred at 1500 hrs., EST, on Sunday afternoon of December 10. NYPD Police Officer Noreen Murray, of the Public Information Office, stated that "....a match was pushed through the aperture of the token booth...," and activated the Halon fire extinguishment system that is installed in almost all the token booths in the City.
However, Transit officials admit that this Halon system is sometimes tampered with by Transit employees, who disable the system in order to prevent it from going off while the booth clerk is smoking in the booth. But Officer Murray was quick to point out that in the Brooklyn incident, the booth clerk, "...was not a smoker."
The movie, "The Money Train," depicts a similar robbery attempt, with the suspect starting a fire through the coin aperture with the use of a flammable liquid. It was reported that then-Chief of the Transit Police Michael O'Connor, upon reviewing the film's script, was totally against the making of a film within the NYC Transit System...that depicted such violence. It was O'Connor's contention that the Transit Police, before the recent merge into the NYPD, had been successful in reducing crime figures significantly, both under O'Connor's tenure and his predecessor, William Bratton, who is now the Commissioner of the NYPD.
O'Connor let higher-ups in the New York City Transit Authority know about his feelings, but was told by them that the movie was going to be made anyway, regardless of his beliefs. When the NYC Transit and Housing Police Departments merged into the NYPD, O'Connor retired. Transit Officials nor the Police have publicly announced any plans of increased security at the booths.