A famed subway performer whose been enjoying the musical noticed underground for greater than 20 years says she’s been feeling unhealthy vibrations about her security – even earlier than a tattooed hooligan openly stole money from her tip bucket within the Union Sq. station this week.
Bystander video exhibits Natalia “Noticed Girl” Paruz wield her bowstring – usually used to coax otherworldly sounds from her instrument – towards a shoeless man as he shamelessly grabbed a handful of her hard-earned suggestions Tuesday.
The tattoo-covered, shoeless brigand runs off towards the station’s turnstiles, as Paruz might be heard helplessly calling for the police.
Paruz completely instructed The Put up it’s solely the newest threatening incident she’s skilled in current months, regardless of a surge of Nationwide Guard and cops within the subways.
“When that really occurred, that was implausible,” she mentioned. “However that didn’t final. It was an important initiative, nevertheless it doesn’t substitute the necessity for native law enforcement officials to really man the police stations.
“I’ve by no means felt menaced earlier than. It is a new factor.”
For 25 years, Paruz and her musical noticed have been a well-recognized sight and sound for straphangers.
The self-styled “Noticed Girl” delights in busking subways as one in all 350 sanctioned performers within the MTA’s Music Below New York program, however she has additionally carried out in orchestras, movies and offered the chilling music to Robert Durst’s chilling homicide confession within the first season of HBO’s “The Jinx.”
However Paruz mentioned the subways have more and more felt unsafe since 2021, when performers returned underground after a 14-month, COVID-driven hiatus.
Repeated run-ins with menacing weirdos — together with a bucket drummer who threatened to beat her up and destroy her gear — not too long ago pressured her to cease enjoying altogether in Occasions Sq. station.
“Now the state of affairs is so unhealthy there – loopy folks, homeless folks and no police by any means,” she mentioned.
“It’s a priority as a result of I don’t need the Union Sq. subway station to deteriorate like Occasions Sq..”
Paruz mentioned she brushed it off when a person stole a CD from her this week in Union Sq. — however that the caught-on-video theft Tuesday despatched her worry skyrocketing.
She worries that even when the thief is caught, he’ll be lower unfastened with out bail just like the girl who whacked a subway cellist, a pal of hers, over the top with a steel water bottle.
“What’s the level in police catching criminals if there’s no deterrent?” she mentioned.
The NYPD confirmed that Paruz made a grievance concerning the theft, which police sources mentioned was for $2. Paruz mentioned that’s the amount of money she places in her tip bucket earlier than she begins performing, and he or she doesn’t understand how way more the thief grabbed.
Transit crime citywide is down 5.5% to date this 12 months in comparison with the identical span in 2023, NYPD information exhibits. This week, it’s up almost 18% in comparison with the identical week final 12 months.
— Further reporting by Joe Marino
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