WEST VILLAGE — A man jumped into the track bed at the 14th Street subway station to evade transit officers who asked him for ID after he asked a passenger to swipe him through the turnstile, police said.
The 27-year-old man was asking commuters leaving the transit system to swipe him through the turnstiles at the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue and 14th Street on Aug. 12, police said.
The man was spotted by transit police officers about 9:10 p.m., getting swiped through the turnstile by a parting passenger, police said.
When the officers asked him for his identification, he bolted to the northbound ACE platform and jumped down into the tracks on the A train side, police said.
The man then ran over to the southbound A train tracks and climbed up onto the southbound ACE platform to dart into a waiting southbound E train, authorities said.
When an officer tried to take him off the train, he ran north on the platform, police said, but the officer caught up to him.
Police said the man squirmed and flailed his arms to resist arrest, but was ultimately subdued and cuffed.
He had two open warrants and a record of previous crime in the transit system, police said.
He was charged with resisting arrest and criminal trespass in the third degree, both misdemeanors, as well as a violation for unlawful solicitation in the subway, police said.
He was wanted on a warrant for an assault he allegedly committed on June 20, according to court records. He was initially held on $1,500 bail but released by a judge five days later with an order to return on July 30, which he didn’t.
He was held on $1,000 bail after his arraignment for the Aug. 12 incident, but pleaded guilty to the criminal trespass charge on Aug. 18 and was sentenced to time served, prosecutors said.
