Disir
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Darius McCollum is something out of New York City tabloid lore: the thief of all thieves, the guy who gets caught over and over again (30 times, in total), seemingly the minute he gets out of jail or prison for his previous caper. When he is inevitably arrested, the local press corps adds the latest incident to its running list, and his exploits in newspapers almost always carry roughly the same lede, Darius McCollum, the infamous subway thief....
It's no surprise, then, that Off the Rails, the documentary out this spring about McCollum's life, ends with the man behind bars on New York City's Rikers Island. Because for the last three decades, he has been through the notorious jail complex many times, always roughly for the same reasons: impersonating a subway conductor or bus driver; stealing said vehicle; and then, eventually, getting caught.
But as McCollum likes to say, "The thing is," he doesn't exactly steal the vehicles—at least not in the traditional sense. He drives them to their next destination, dropping off people as he goes, just like any bus or subway driver would. The only problem, of course, is that he isn't one—McCollum has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which his lawyers and defenders say plays a key role in his pattern of criminal behavior, an "obsession" he just can't seem to shake.
On a recent afternoon, I sat down with McCollum on Rikers Island, where he's currently awaiting trial on charges of criminal impersonation and grand larceny after allegedly stealing a Greyhound bus last November. (That case is ongoing, and, per his lawyer's request, we did not discuss it in detail.) His voice is calm, his sentences articulate: By the end of the conversation, we were talking about the intricacies of New York City's subways more than him actually stealing them. We touched on his favorite station (Herald Square in Manhattan), his concerns about local infrastructure ("It's not what it used to be"), and the eternal dilemma of delay ("It's gonna take you longer than three years," he says, of the L train's pending closure).
What struck me most is the man's sense of self-awareness. He's almost painfully cognizant of the bizarre nature of what he's up to—as if he's watching a movie or news reel of himself play out on repeat. So we talked about that, the documentary (which he still hasn't seen), mental health behind bars, and what he describes as a possible movie about his life starring Julia Roberts and Idris Elba.
The Infamous Rikers Inmate Who Stole Entire Subway Trains | VICE | United States
It's an interesting interview.
It's no surprise, then, that Off the Rails, the documentary out this spring about McCollum's life, ends with the man behind bars on New York City's Rikers Island. Because for the last three decades, he has been through the notorious jail complex many times, always roughly for the same reasons: impersonating a subway conductor or bus driver; stealing said vehicle; and then, eventually, getting caught.
But as McCollum likes to say, "The thing is," he doesn't exactly steal the vehicles—at least not in the traditional sense. He drives them to their next destination, dropping off people as he goes, just like any bus or subway driver would. The only problem, of course, is that he isn't one—McCollum has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which his lawyers and defenders say plays a key role in his pattern of criminal behavior, an "obsession" he just can't seem to shake.
On a recent afternoon, I sat down with McCollum on Rikers Island, where he's currently awaiting trial on charges of criminal impersonation and grand larceny after allegedly stealing a Greyhound bus last November. (That case is ongoing, and, per his lawyer's request, we did not discuss it in detail.) His voice is calm, his sentences articulate: By the end of the conversation, we were talking about the intricacies of New York City's subways more than him actually stealing them. We touched on his favorite station (Herald Square in Manhattan), his concerns about local infrastructure ("It's not what it used to be"), and the eternal dilemma of delay ("It's gonna take you longer than three years," he says, of the L train's pending closure).
What struck me most is the man's sense of self-awareness. He's almost painfully cognizant of the bizarre nature of what he's up to—as if he's watching a movie or news reel of himself play out on repeat. So we talked about that, the documentary (which he still hasn't seen), mental health behind bars, and what he describes as a possible movie about his life starring Julia Roberts and Idris Elba.
The Infamous Rikers Inmate Who Stole Entire Subway Trains | VICE | United States
It's an interesting interview.
