CAMERA SNATCHER

A young woman’s camera was stolen from the subway on Dec. 2. The 21-year-old West 103rd Street resident was riding on the C line at 12:30 p.m., seated next to the train’s doors. She had a camera bag with her, which she placed on the floor. At the 72nd Street Station, a man in a white hooded jacket snatched her bag and jumped off the train right as the doors closed. He then ran out of the station. Unable to pursue the man, the woman got off at the next stop then returned to her neighborhood to report the crime. The camera that was stolen, a Nikon D90, was worth around $1,200. Along with the lens, bag and other accessories, the woman lost roughly $1,500 in valuables.

CRUEL INTERRUPTION
A woman’s cellphone was snatched in mid-conversation on Dec. 2 by an unknown thief. According to the 34-year-old victim, she was walking along West 61st Street at about 7 p.m. and talking on her iPhone, when all of a sudden a man came up behind her and grabbed her left arm. He twisted the phone out of her grasp, then took off down the block away from the woman. The thief remains at large.

GROUP MUGGING
A deliveryman was robbed by four thugs on Dec. 1 in the West 79th Street Boat Basin. The 25-year-old Upper West Side resident was dropping off a routine food delivery around 5:30 p.m. in the boat basin when four men approached him. One perp flashed a knife and told the deliveryman to hand over all his money. As the victim surrendered $250 in cash, another perp took his bike, then the four muggers fled to Riverside Park. The victim was uninjured, but police have been unable to identify the criminals.

TEEN TOUGH GUYS
A teenage boy was mugged by two other teens on West End Avenue on Nov. 29. The 15-year-old victim was walking down the street at 5 p.m. when he was approached by the two perps. One asked the victim for his phone. The victim refused, so the perp pushed him to the ground. “Should I shoot him?” asked the second thug, and the wounded victim handed over his Galaxy phone and Monster Beats headphones. The perps fled the scene, and remain at large.

STOLEN CHECK FAIL
A man was arrested after he attempted to cash a stolen check on Nov. 30. The 32-year-old walked into a bank on Broadway with the check at noon and handed it over the counter, hoping for an easy $2,500. The tellers inspected the check, however, and realized that it was not his and that he had no permission to cash it. Police were notified, and the man was arrested for attempted larceny.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

The New York City’s MTA has signed a $599 million contract with Bombardier Inc. for 300 new subway cars for use in the City’s transit system, the Wall Street Journal reports.

(by Alissa Fleck)

The new cars will replace the oldest train cars in the city, such as the C line train cars, which will be 50 years old at the time of the switch. The majority of these train cars will be delivered between 2015 and 2017, and will resemble the newest cars currently in use, with bright lights, sharper-looking signs and even chilly air conditioning.

The C train consistently scores last in rider assessment of subway lines, according to the WSJ, but uncertainty remains as to whether the new cars will directly replace C cars, or whether the C train will simply receive newer, recycled cars already in use elsewhere.

One faithful C rider told the WSJ he thought the C line was consistently left unclean “mainly because it’s in Brooklyn.”

The J and Z lines make up the other oldest subway lines, while cars on both lines as well as the Q, N, E and F have some of the newest cars in transit.

Below are some MTA subway car statistics (compiled from the NYC MTA’s website):

-In 2011, average weekday subway ridership was 5.3 million, the highest since 1951

-There are approximately 6,282 subway cars in service

-There are approximately 7,775 weekday train trips

-Subway cars in NYC traveled a total of 342.7 million miles in 2011

-In 2011 the average number of miles traveled by a subway car between repairs was 172,700

- Over the past 20 years, NYC Transit has rehabilitated or upgraded almost half the stations in the system