I'd like to commend the NYPD officers who went beyond their regular duties to help me out early Tuesday morning.
I'm a disabled veteran who uses a wheelchair. I visit New York pretty often, and I know the subways well enough.
However, as I was headed back to my hotel to prepare for an early morning flight home, my train in Manhattan was rerouted on the F line, and I wound up in Brooklyn. I got off at one station, only to find the elevator out. I waited for the next train, and took it. A passenger on the train told me there'd be an elevator at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, and I got off there.
There was no elevator. It was around 3:30 am, so there were also no people there. I was in a bind, as I had to get back to my hotel at Wall St to get my luggage and leave for the airport in just over an hour!
After waiting a bit for another train to arrive to try again, some NYPD officers appeared at the stairs across the tracks on the platform. There were four of them.
I called out across, and told them I couldn't get to an elevator in time to make my flight back. They first helped to find which station I should get to, or which train to take at that hour.
Then, the four officers carried me, in ny wheelchair, up the stairs on my side and back down on the other side so that I could catch the next train back up.
They could've just given me instructions to make my way back, but they went much further by getting me over to the other platform, where I boarded my train, and made it back to the financial district within just a few minutes, and just in time to avoid missing my flight.
Of course, it was not a dangerous or life-threatening situation. It would've personally been very costly and hazardous to me, given my travel plans combined with my disability.
I just thought that with all the negative press people like to focus on when a bad egg does something bad, people should see how these officers took extra effort to help me out.
I wish I knew their names, so that I could thank them publicly.
Thanks NYPD. read more