BROOKLYN — Darius McCollum, the man who has gained citywide notoriety for joyriding on stolen trains and buses for more than 30 years, was arrested again in Gowanus Wednesday afternoon for taking a Greyhound bus, police said.
The bus had arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal from Philadelphia at 11 a.m. and was scheduled to leave for Richmond, Va., at 2:15 p.m., but a supervisor noticed it went missing about 1:35 p.m., an NYPD spokeswoman said.
The supervisor notified Greyhound's Texas headquarters, which tracked the bus' GPS device and contacted the NYPD, police said. Officers spotted it about 4 p.m. near Third Avenue and Union Street and pulled it over, police said.
Inside, they found McCollum, 50, who's been arrested 27 times for stealing or trying to steal transit vehicles, police said.
McCollum, who has Asperger's syndrome, wore a forged Homeland Security shield and gave officers a forged ID, police said.
He was arrested on charges of grand larceny, possession of a forged instrument, impersonation of a police officer, unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of stolen property and trespassing, police said.
He had not been arraigned as of Thursday morning, prosecutors said.
McCollum first gained public attention in 1981 when he took over an E train full of passengers and drove it all the way to the World Trade Center.
The stunt inspired the play "Boy Steals Train" by Jude Domski.
He was arrested for trying to steal a Long Island Rail Road train in 2005.
He was arrested in September 2010 for stealing a coach bus in Hoboken.
During the arrest, he confessed to stealing another bus about 20 days earlier.
He was sentenced to up to five years for that theft.
"We are fully cooperating with local authorities on their investigation and conducting an internal investigation of our own to obtain additional details regarding this incident," said Greyhound spokeswoman Lanesha Gipson.
