(The Associated Press circulated the following article on February 24.)
NEW YORK — A man who has been arrested repeatedly for pretending to be a transit worker pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to steal a locomotive, prosecutors said.
In June, Darius McCollum, 39, went into a Long Island Rail Road yard, posed as a safety consultant and asked how to operate a new type of engine that had just been delivered, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a news release.
McCollum later was found with stolen keys, including one used to operate the new locomotive, Brown said.
He pleaded guilty to third-degree attempted grand larceny and faces up to three years in prison when he is sentenced March 28. A telephone message left at the office of his lawyer was not immediately returned.
McCollum has been arrested 20 times for illegally posing as a subway motorman, bus driver or transit token taker. When he was arrested in the June incident, he was on parole after serving prison time for his last arrest.