In a move straight out of 80s New York, two would-be robbers early this morning tried to gain access to the station agent booth at the Prospect Park Q stop. But when the female agent in the booth refused to let them in they responded by pouring gasoline on the booth's window and into the booth, which they then lit on fire, MTA officials say.
The incident occurred a little after 5 a.m.. After setting the blaze the perps quickly fled, police say. Luckily the station agent—who joined the MTA in January 1994 and whose name has not been released—responded quickly and put out the fire with an extinguisher. A straphanger reportedly helped put the blaze out from the outside as well. Police say the agent was taken to Methodist Hospital for observation and possible smoke inhalation but appears to be fine.
Police are currently investigating, and have not yet released any information about the arsonists other than the fact that they seemed to be in their late teens or early 20s. They remain at large.
"It was like an old-time robbery," union official Joe Bermudez pointed out to the News. For a while in the late 80s and early 90s criminals would torch booths as a means to get access to the tokens and cash inside (which was also when token booths still had tokens and carried much more cash).
