NYPD drone helps nab two Queens teen subway surfers — one of whom had MTA train keys

An NYPD drone helped constabulary find and apprehension 2 teens caught subway surfing atop a Queens No. 7 train, constabulary said Wednesday.

A drone flying implicit the No. 7 line successful Corona spotted 2 boys, ages 14 and 15, atop a bid adjacent the 103rd St.-Corona Plaza presumption astir 7:30 a.m. connected Tuesday, cops said.

Officers were dispatched to the station, wherever the teens were removed from the bid and taken into custody.

The younger teen, constabulary said, had a acceptable of MTA keys that allowed him into the conductor’s cabin.

Both youths were charged with reckless endangerment. The teen with the keys was additionally charged with possession of burglar’s tools.

Mayor Adams past period hailed the NYPD drone initiative, claiming it has been an important instrumentality successful the combat against subway surfing and has saved hundreds of lives.

“We volition spot the lives that are lost, but seldom bash you get the medal for the lives that are saved,” the politician said astatine a property league extracurricular a Queens schoolhouse adjacent the aboveground No. 7 train. “And these officers and this squad and this exertion is redeeming lives.”

The aerial drone programme started past year as a pilot initiative and was made imperishable this June, NYPD officials said.

Typically, the NYPD flies 2 drones to people subway surfing during the after-school hours from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. These drones alert supra the elevated J, M, Z and 7 subway lines successful Queens — a favourite borough for the unsafe stunt — to alert officers beneath if a subway surfer is spotted. The officers past apprehend the daredevils astatine a subway presumption and instrumentality them into custody.

The section has precocious shaken up the docket and is present flying drones successful the morning, arsenic well, officials said.

Since the programme started a twelvemonth ago, 114 radical person been brought successful aft being flagged subway surfing by the drones. Around 40 of those radical had been arrested much than erstwhile for subway surfing, NYPD officials said.

Six radical person died from subway surfing this year, including 2 teens who perished while subway surfing wrong a fewer days of each different past month.