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<text id=93TT1755>
<title>
May 24, 1993: The Great A Train Robbery
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
May 24, 1993 Kids, Sex & Values
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
CITIES, Page 49
The Great A Train Robbery
</hdr>
<body>
<p>How a 16-year-old stole a train--and the hearts of New Yorkers
</p>
<p>By SOPHFRONIA SCOTT GREGORY--With reporting by Massimo Calabresi/New York
</p>
<p> When the story broke, it seemed to be yet another horrific New
York City fable: delinquent teen commandeers an eight-car subway
train, taking 2,000 passengers on a three-hour joyride on the
A line, the longest in the system. But as it turned out, the
tale of Keron ("Keno") Thomas, 16, was not of the "Honey let's call that broker in Westchester this city really is going to hell"
variety. It was that other type of urban story, the kind that
continues to propel big-city dwellers forward each day, a tale
of hard work and self-starting (albeit misguided) initiative,
of taking matters into one's own hands to make dreams come true.
</p>
<p> Keno loved trains. When he was 12, his family left their native
Trinidad to live in New York City--and Keno became enthralled
with the subway system. "He'd never seen anything like it before,"
says his sister Melissa, 13. He collected transit uniform shirts
and equipment, read motormen's training manuals, drew pictures
of the different trains and rode the subway for hours at a time.
At home Keno would sit at a desk and, using a stapler as a make-believe
throttle, pretend to drive through routes, calling out stops
and taking on passengers. "For hours he would do this," says
his father Francis Thomas, a construction worker.
</p>
<p> Keno learned all about the system by hanging out in the subway
dispatcher's office in Brooklyn, where he picked up the transit
jargon and befriended motormen. Keno, stocky and stout, convinced
one of them, Regoberto Sabio, that he was a 25-year-old motorman,
and would ride Sabio's route with him. "He didn't show me an
ID card or anything like that," Sabio later told a reporter,
"but there was nothing in his mannerisms that made me think
he was anything but another motorman." By riding with Sabio,
Keno learned firsthand how to drive the trains, what tools he
needed to release a train's brakes and how to talk to a conductor.
</p>
<p> Then came the day Sabio went on vacation. That Saturday Keno
called Manhattan's 207th Street station on the A-train line
and, pretending to be Sabio, requested a shift. When he showed
up, he signed in using Sabio's Transit Authority pass number.
He received a mild admonition for wearing jeans instead of his
full uniform, but, says Lieut. Robert Valentino of the New York
City transit police, "he looked like a motorman and he acted
like a motorman, so they gave him an assignment." Keno dutifully
studied the route out to Brooklyn before the 3:58 p.m. departure
time.
</p>
<p> He was nervous at first. The electric-powered train was made
up of eight R44 cars--and Keno had been only on the older
R38 models. Undaunted, he boarded the train, alerting the conductor
with the requisite buzz and closing the doors. "I had waited
four years for this moment," Keno would later tell authorities.
"It was very exciting." He handled the train with the greatest
care, making all the proper announcements and easing the train
into the proper position at each station. Twenty-four miles
later, he pulled into his final destination in Brooklyn. He
was one minute ahead of schedule.
</p>
<p> The trip back into Manhattan went almost as well. But five stops
before ending his adventure, a slight incline sent the train
speeding downhill, exceeding a 20-m.p.h. speed limit. Before
Keno could slow train, he went through a speeding signal and
tripped an emergency brake. The train hissed to a dead stop.
All he had to do was get out of the train, get onto the tracks
and reset the brake. But Keno was afraid of the dark subway
tunnels, the rats and exposed high-voltage lines. For a full
30 minutes he sat panicked as the conductor and Transit Authority
supervisors, still not knowing his identity, coached and chided
him. Finally a rail inspector arrived and repowered the train.
At the terminal, Keno was sent for the mandatory drug test that
motormen take in the event of a serious gaffe. However, he fled
before reaching the Transit Authority offices.
</p>
<p> Early last week, detectives tracked Keno down at his parents'
home in Brooklyn. Only then did they discover that the offending
motorman was a 16-year-old boy. Now Keno sits at home, ashamed
of what he did and worried about what will happen to him next.
"He wanted to show people that he could drive a train, and someday
he wanted to become a motorman," says Melissa. "He accomplished
his goal and everything, but in the wrong way." At first, a
Transit Authority spokesman insisted they would "throw the book
at this kid," charging him with reckless endangerment, forgery
and criminal impersonation. Says Valentino: "We were fortunate
in that no one got injured."
</p>
<p> Still, Keno's popularity may allow for more lenient treatment.
Much of the city seems willing to forgive the misadventure.
New Yorkers were astonished--and, in a way, flattered--that
anyone could be obsessed with their much maligned subways. Movie-of-the-week
packagers are lining up for Keno's signature. Said ex-Mayor
Ed Koch: "If I were the judge, I'd explain to him that he did
place people in danger. Then I would ask the [Transit Authority]
to give him an internship." That would be a dream come true
for Keno Thomas. But such an ending is up to the lawyers and
the courts. And that's another kind of story.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>