New Security Concerns
Rob Station Agents In Brooklyn Booth

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Two New York City Transit Station Agents were robbed at gunpoint during an early-morning shift change at a Brooklyn subway stop July 9.

The Chief-Leader/Ginger Adams Otis NORMAN W. POU: Focus more on security.

NYC Transit spokesman James Anyansi confirmed that the robbers forced their way into a token booth as one worker arrived to relieve another. The strong-arm crew got away with more than $1,000.

He said the agency was conducting a full investigation.

One Hospitalized

The two female Station Agents were unharmed, but one had to be taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for trauma and has yet to return to work.

The incident occurred at approximately 5:45 a.m. at the Beverly Road stop on the Q line in Brooklyn.

The overnight Station Agent, working from inside a locked token booth, later told police that she'd seen the robbers - a man and a woman who appeared to be a couple - loitering on the mezzanine, seemingly waiting for a train.

As the day-shift Station Agent arrived, the couple drifted closer to the booth. When the door opened to allow the second worker to enter, one robber pulled out a gun and the two of them rushed the booth and forced both clerks inside. The women were ordered to empty the till of the more-than $1,000 in fares collected overnight.

Norman W. Pou, a Transport Workers' Union Local 100 board member representing Station Agents and Cleaners, said the robbery was one of several recent incidents he hoped would "improve [NYC Transit's] attitude toward subways as a whole."

TWU: MTA Should Step Up

He added that it was time for management to have a meeting with union members to grapple with issues of safety and security, for the benefit of its customers and its workers.

The union two weeks ago criticized NYC Transit's decision to have Station Agents outside the token booths selling $4 MetroCards over the July 4 weekend at the busy Stillwell Ave. complex in Coney Island.

Even with a strong police presence on the mezzanine, a union official said it was "folly" to have an agent selling MetroCards outside the booth in easy reach of every passerby.