CBS2 Exclusive: Bus Driver Describes Being Attacked For Gold Chain
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 57-year-old bus driver suffered a minor injury Thursday morning during an attempted robbery on a crosstown bus on the Upper West Side, police said.
The incident occurred on an M72 bus around 7:20 a.m. at West 66th Street and Freedom Place.
Bus Driver Injured During Apparent Robbery On Upper West Side
A man boarded the bus, demanded money from the driver and tried to snatch a gold chain from his neck, 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck reported.
The driver fought back and suffered a cut on his arm during the altercation, police told 1010 WINS.
The bus driver, Timothy Fox, who has worked for the transit agency for 26 years, was taken to the hospital, where he received stitches, CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported.
No one else was on the bus at the time of the incident. The assailant lingered on the bus after everyone else had gotten off.
Bus Driver Injured During Apparent Robbery On Upper West Side
Fox spoke exclusively to Rincon, saying his attacker used a few nasty words before reaching for his chain while the bus was still moving.
"Tried to snatch the chain from me," said Fox, who had just begun his shift when the incident happened. "I stopped the bus. We had an altercation. Then he got out of the bus and took off."
The attacker didn't get the chain.
Fox said he never saw what the man was using as a weapon.
"I don't know what it was in his hand," he said. "It wasn't very big. It was sharp."
The suspect was last seen fleeing on foot west toward Riverside Boulevard and remains on the loose, authorities said.
The investigation is ongoing.
The bus does not have a camera. Fox's union representatives at the Michael J. Quill Bus Depot said less than half of the MTA's buses have cameras and one would have been helpful in Thursday's incident.
"It shows outside the bus from the front window, and it shows every customer that's on the bus," said Chris Magwood of Transport Workers Union Local 100. "So we would have had a picture of him if there would've been cameras on the bus."
Union officials also said most buses don't have partitions, which could shield bus drivers from attacks.
"Bus operators get assaulted maybe three times a week," said Terrance Harmon, also of TWU Local 100. "And it's a very hard job, a very stressful job -- and we love our jobs. But at the same time, we should be protected more."
Neighbors, meanwhile, were shocked.
"The bus drivers here really are part of our community, and they really do their job well. It's a very hard job," said John Harrison, who lives around the corner from the scene. "It's just unfortunate that somebody would do something that drastic. For what? A gold chain?"
"Wow, that's shocking," Marti Frucci, who was waiting for the bus on West 66th Street, told WCBS 880's Marla Diamond. "That's one of the reasons we live in this neighborhood because it's so safe and we have a 12-year-old who we just started letting ride the bus by herself, so I'm not sure we'll be doing that anymore."
Rosa Ziccarelli, who lives right next to the bus stop, blamed it on an uptick in crime.
"Maybe these thousand extra police officers are warranted because of stupid things that happen," she said.
