A reader emailed us this morning with an account of what sounds like a horrible morning commute: While awaiting her train at 8:30 a.m. today, she says she saw a man pleasuring himself about 20 feet away.
I was on the uptown R Platform at Whitehall Street and it was just me and this perv. I was looking at my phone and looking to see if the train was coming, and I could just feel something wasn't right. I look over and he's in the corner looking at me and jerking off. I get out my phone and take his photo. Then a man and a woman are now with me on the subway platform, I take two more photos of him and say to the man and woman, "this man just exposed himself to me, I took his photo, he's a pervert," then he approaches me and says, "why you take my photo, what are you talking about, what did I do?" The man gets in between me and the perv and tells him to back off. At this point the train has arrived and the lady says to me, "get on the train." The three of us get on the train and the perv stays on the platform. Attached are the photos I took.
The tipster says she's considering contacting the police, but we've asked the NYPD what's best way to do that if a police officer isn't on the platform and if you're trying to get the hell away. Of course, sometimes, even if you find a cop near the station, they'll tell you that you can't do anything because the pervert didn't even touch you. And, back in 2005, a cop even refused a photograph of a subway masturbator, who was eventually caught because his photograph was publicized through the media.
Even the police think subway perverts are the number 1 quality-of-life problem on the trains.
