Darius McCollum: Transit Crimes, Autism, and Indefinite Commitment

Darius McCollum is a New York man with Autism Spectrum Disorder who was arrested more than 30 times over 35 years for impersonating transit workers and taking control of New York City subway trains, buses, and commuter rail equipment. In January 2018 he pleaded not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect in the theft of a Greyhound bus, and that October a Brooklyn judge committed him to a secure state psychiatric facility. He remains institutionalized as of October 2025.¹

How the Transit Obsession Began

McCollum grew up in Queens near a station served by two Metropolitan Transportation Authority lines, and he memorized the entire New York City subway map at age eight.² At 12, after another child stabbed him in the back with scissors at school, he stopped attending class and spent his days riding the subway. He gravitated to the 179th Street terminal in Jamaica, Queens, where a motorman let him into the crew room.³

Transit workers took him in. He ran errands, cleaned dispatcher offices and token booths, and helped with maintenance at bus depots. MTA employees taught him to operate subway trains, including how to use circuit breakers, work the doors, brake, and reverse. By his early teens, workers were letting him perform “yard moves,” driving trains alone from the terminal to a nearby MTA yard for cleaning and servicing.⁴ They gave him lockers, keys, flashlights, vests, and uniforms, and sometimes let him sleep in stations.

The Pattern of Arrests

McCollum’s first arrest came in 1981, when he was 15. He had driven an in-service E train from 34th Street to the World Trade Center, making every stop and every announcement along the way. Passengers did not realize the teenager at the controls was not an MTA employee.⁵ He later said he had been covering a shift for an operator who asked for help.

What followed was a pattern of recidivism spanning more than three decades. McCollum was arrested again and again for impersonating transit workers and taking subway trains, buses, and commuter rail vehicles. He claimed to have operated roughly 5,000 MTA trains and more than 1,000 MTA buses over his life, along with Long Island Railroad, Metro-North, and Amtrak trains.⁴ He obtained uniforms from retirees, uniform stores, and transit employees, and at one point kept about a dozen lockers in MTA yards and stations to store his equipment.

His knowledge of the system was unusually deep. He could recite all subway stations in order, identify specific circuit breakers by sight, and perform mechanical work on buses. He attended MTA union meetings to advocate for worker benefits. After September 11, 2001, he served on a special task force identifying areas of the transit system vulnerable to unauthorized access.⁴

He wanted the job legitimately. The MTA rejected his applications at 17 and 18, viewing him as a liability, and later said it would not hire him regardless of his test performance because of his criminal record. McCollum himself could not pass the MTA’s civil service exam.⁶³

Two later incidents stand out. In 2010, he stole an Adirondack Trailways bus and was arrested driving it on a highway near Kennedy International Airport; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to undergo cognitive behavioral therapy as part of a plea deal.² By the time of his last arrest, he had spent roughly 23 years in maximum-security prison across his convictions.⁷

The 2015 Greyhound Bus Case

McCollum’s 30th and final arrest came in November 2015, just 79 days after his parole ended. He first showed a fake badge at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, claiming to be a federal agent. Two days later he removed a Greyhound bus from a depot in Hoboken, New Jersey, and drove it through Queens, Manhattan, and into Brooklyn, where police stopped him at the corner of Union Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus.⁸⁴ He was charged with grand larceny, criminal impersonation, possession of a forged instrument, unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of stolen property, and trespassing.

The Role of Autism in the Case

Court records show McCollum was first diagnosed with what was then called Asperger’s Disorder in 1981 at New York Cornell Medical Center, the same year as his first arrest.⁴ For decades afterward, mental health professionals gave him inconsistent diagnoses, and his medical records did not consistently identify him as autistic until his thirties.

In the Greyhound case, two court-appointed psychiatrists, Dr. Eric Goldsmith and Dr. Marc Tarle, both confirmed that McCollum met the DSM-5 criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Dr. Tarle concluded that McCollum “did lack the substantial capacity to know or appreciate the consequences of his actions by reason of mental illness, autism spectrum disorder.”⁴ Prosecutors accepted the finding and agreed that a plea of not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect was in the “best interest of justice.”

McCollum described the transit system as his “passion” and “hobby” and told the court the engine noise was “soothing” and that he could not control his impulses. His defense argued that earlier treatment plans had failed because they were not designed for someone with ASD, and that he had “no viable defense to the charges other than the proposed affirmative defense” based on his autism.⁴

The 2018 Plea and Commitment

On January 8, 2018, McCollum pleaded not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect under New York Criminal Procedure Law § 220.15.⁹ The court then held an initial hearing over several dates in 2018 to evaluate his mental condition, taking testimony from treating psychiatrists and psychologists, independent examiners, and an MTA representative.

On October 5, 2018, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ruth Shillingford ruled that McCollum had a “dangerous mental disorder” as defined by CPL § 330.20(1)(c). She designated him a “Track 1” acquittee and issued an Order of Commitment to a secure facility.⁴ The ruling effectively placed him in indefinite confinement.

Justice Shillingford expressed discomfort with the outcome even as she imposed it. She said she believed secure psychiatric hospitals were not suited for nonviolent offenders like McCollum but that “the law ties her hands,” and she suggested the Legislature consider alternative ways to treat autistic people who commit crimes.¹⁰ Defense attorney Sally Butler argued that forensic psychiatric hospitals are equipped for conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder rather than ASD, and warned that McCollum, who was “very child-like,” would be at risk housed among violent offenders.¹¹

Where He Is Now and What Release Would Take

As of October 2025, McCollum remains in state custody. He has been moved from a psychiatric facility in Rochester to one in Orangeburg, New York, where the lockdown rules are similar but he is now housed with non-violent offenders rather than the violent ones he was placed among in Rochester. Michael John Carley, an autism advocate who visited him on October 13, 2025, reported that McCollum wakes at 6:00 a.m., is asleep by 8:30 to 9:00 p.m., takes minimal medication, and has access to limited activities including one hour of outdoor time for walking or basketball. He can now receive books and letters by mail.¹

Under CPL § 330.20, the initial commitment lasts up to six months, followed by a one-year retention order, then two years, then successive two-year periods. Release requires a court finding that the person no longer has a dangerous mental disorder and is no longer mentally ill, and full discharge can only be sought after at least three continuous years on outpatient status.¹² No public reporting indicates any release hearing has changed McCollum’s status.

The Criticism the Case Attracted

McCollum’s case drew sharp criticism from disability advocates. Carley, who was born months apart from McCollum and is also on the spectrum, wrote a widely circulated essay arguing that the outcome was driven less by disability than by the fact that McCollum was Black and poor. He contrasted his own trajectory with McCollum’s, attributing his success to “educational opportunities, and blatant white privilege” while McCollum, lacking those advantages, channeled his intelligence into the transit system because it was his only outlet.¹³

Carley criticized the court’s characterization of Asperger’s as a “dangerous, mental disorder” and accused mainstream autism advocacy organizations of avoiding the case out of concern it would make “everyone on the spectrum look irresponsible.” He described the MTA’s refusal to hire McCollum, even in non-driving roles, as a response from bureaucrats embarrassed by his ability to exploit their security gaps.¹³ Director Adam Irving, whose 2016 documentary Off the Rails followed McCollum’s story, noted that despite more than 30 arrests, McCollum’s crimes were “victimless” in the sense that no passengers were physically harmed and no equipment was damaged.⁶

1
Neurodiversity Press. For Those Who Know His Story, a Darius McCollum Update
2
NBC New York. Serial Transit Impersonator Darius McCollum
3
Grist. This Guy Loves Public Transit So Much He’s Been Arrested 29 Times for Trying to Drive It
4
Findlaw. People v. McCollum
5
NBC New York. Darius McCollum, Notorious NYC Transit Thief
6
DOC NYC. Off the Rails Poses Question of Obsession and Accountability
7
Prison Policy Initiative. Darius McCollum
8
The Guardian. Darius McCollum, Train Thief Dreams of New York Transit
9
NY1. Plea Deal Sends Man With History of Stealing Buses and Trains to Mental Health Facility
10
New York Daily News. End of the Line for Legendary Serial Transit Bandit Darius McCollum
11
New York Post. Transit Bandit Ordered Locked Up at Secure Psychiatric Facility
12
New York State Senate. CPL 330.20
13
Michael John Carley. Autism-Schmautism: In the End, Darius McCollum Was Poor and Black