Darrius Mccollum, Mta And Charter Bus Service Bandit

It undoubtedly changes your perspective of someone when you hear they have been arrested. Sure, mistakes can be made (on both sides of the law), but it would seem foolish to deny that a person's viewpoint changes when they discover an individual has been arrested. That's why we ask on job applications if a person has ever been convicted of a felony.

Hear that somebody was arrested twice, and that eyebrow goes up a little higher. Three times, and that eyebrow might be inside your hairline.

So what if you heard a man had been arrested twenty-seven times?

That's the case of Darrius McCollum, who was arrested for the 27th time this past August. The complete list of McCollum's crimes, while certainly serious, is admittedly a little bit humorous as well at least a little bit. His twenty-seven offenses are all based around stealing subway trains and New York charter bus vehicles, as well as impersonating MTA officials.

The New York Post wrote that McCollum, 45, "has been menacing transit agencies for three decades." McCollum stole his first subway train in 1981 as a 15-year-old, when he allegedly broke into an E-train and drove it to its terminal at the World trade Center.

McCollum has an encyclopedic knowledge of trains, charter bus service, and MTA procedures. This is an aspect of McCollum's personality due to his Asperger's syndrome. However, McCollum has been rejected for employment by the MTA on several occasions. According to McCollum's mother, Elizabeth McCollum, New York officials could prevent her son from committing these crimes if they truly wanted to.

"If they want to stop him, they can stop him," she said. "(Her son) knows everybody in the system."

McCollum's latest arrest was for "grand larceny and possession of stolen property." These crimes occurred when the accused allegedly "slipped" into a Hoboken public transit station and rode off on a Trailways coach charter bus that had its keys in the ignition.

"I bet they won't leave the keys in the ignition again," boasted McCollum upon being arrested. And for what it's worth, the officers who arrested and booked McCollum said he "acted like a gentleman" according to the New York Post.

So while we may pass judgment on someone who has been arrested 27 times, an individual with a subway and charter bus service obsession hardly seems like the kind of hardened criminal that should be locked up in Rikers Island. If it was up to us, we'd make him CEO and put him in charge of a New York charter bus company.