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New York City police officers were left incredulous as they arrested a man who fell asleep on the subway with an illegal firearm hanging out of his jeans.
The New York Police Department Chief of Transit said that “in today’s edition of ‘can’t make this up,’” officers came across a 45-year-old man, well known to the NYPD, who fell asleep on a Brooklyn station staircase on Sunday morning.
What caught the police’s attention while on their station inspection, however, was that he had an illegally possessed and loaded firearm on his person in clear view while he was catching up on a bit of shut-eye.
“Definitely not the best decision he’s made,” the Chief of Transit wrote. “Kudos to these Transit cops for making the observation & arrest and for making our subway system safer for all.”
The NYPD also commented on the bizarre incident, saying that removing an illegal firearm off the streets “doesn’t get much easier than this.”
“Officers wasted no time recovering the gun and let him continue his nap in the holding cells,” the NYPD wrote.
Video released by the NYPD shows a man in a yellow hoodie sprawled out on some stairs leading up to the train platform, with a black gun tucked into his jeans waistband.
The man is then awoken by the officers before being immediately put into cuffs.
In 2024, nearly 2,189 guns were taken off the streets in New York City by officers by April, with more than 15,800 seized since the start of the administration in 2022, according to City statistics.
Authorities are hoping, however, that they will be able to more efficiently keep firearms away from the subway with a new pilot program launched on Friday.
The program is using AI-powered scanner weapon detectors in a 30-day trial at a lower Manhattan subway station to see if they can search riders for guns and knives using AI, yet some civil liberties advocates have been protesting this trial.
The trial comes months after a series of shootings earlier this year on the subway, causing multiple fatalities and large police manhunts for a suspect.
One man was critically injured after being shot with his own gun on a moving subway train in New York City, after the shooting victim allegedly “aggressively” provoked a fight with another man as the train traveled between stops in downtown Brooklyn in March.
In February, the NYPD said it was on the hunt for New York’s “most wanted” after a 34-year-old male was shot and killed during a brawl on the subway. Five other victims were wounded in the shooting.
The month before that, in January, another man was fatally shot on the subway in Brooklyn after he tried to break up a fight between two passengers.
