NYC: The Cop Car Adventure
Posted by Skrud at Thursday, October 12th 2006 at 7:41pm
Near the onset of our trip, Josh and I ended up getting a ride in a police car. Well, not an N.Y.P.D. cop car or anything, but an MTA (transit) cop.
You see, Adam was staying in a hotel in Long Island to be close to his girlfriend, while Josh and I spent our time in Manhattan to rock out. We left Josh’s car at the hotel in Long Island – since parking in Manhattan is expensive and the $150 it would’ve cost us was much better spent on beer and food.
So we had to take the train from Deer Park to Penn Station. (Yes, we were actually in a place called “Deer Park”. I thought it was funny, too. I’m such a nerd.) The train line we were on was called “Ronkonkoma” (that’s pronounced ron-KAWN-ko-ma and not ron-kon-KO-ma). Adam told us that we’d probably have to cross to the other side of the track, which we did. The train came and we got on.
“This is the train to ron-KON-ko-ma. The next stop is Brentwood.”
Oops. We were supposed to be on the train to Penn Station. So we get off the train at Brentwood, cross to the other side of the tracks (where of course we had just missed the train we were supposed to be on) and try to find out when the next train is coming.
As we tried to decipher the schedule (which had “…” written for the enxt train from Brentwood) a policeman walked by and said “You guys just missed it.” So we asked him when the next train is coming, and he takes a look at the schedule and declares “Oh shit! The next train doesn’t stop at Brentwood.” Which means there wasn’t going to be a train until three hours later. Crap. We were contemplating taking a cab to the next station when the officer offered to drive us up to Central Islip, which was where the next train was going to stop before it skips Brentwood. We happily agreed…
… and got into the back of his police cruiser – which was very uncomfortable (I had my knees to my chin). During the ride we felt like the cameramen in COPS. The cop was telling us stories about the crazy shit he’d seen – like some kid biking on the train tracks and his bike touched the third rail and the rear wheel exploded and the kid went flying but he was OK because he was holding on to rubber handlebars. Meanwhile the radio is going about a series of four bank robberies. BANK ROBBERIES.
Finally we got off at the station at Central Islip (which we were told not to be around at night – because we won’t come out again) and caught our train to Penn Station arriving around 6:30pm, where Lunchy was waiting for us.
i said you may have needed to cross the tracks depending on which side you were on. however, when gina and i took the train the next day, we noticed the tracks were clearly marked with the direction. and i do recall you guys saying you’d figure it out. ehhe but at least you got a ride in the cop car.
it’s a good thing you didn’t tell the cop about the 4 pounds of hash josh was smuggling in his bum.
“honestly, occifer, i didn’t put it there”
The tracks were so* not clearly marked. They weren’t marked *at all!!!
no way dude…totally there were signs posted on the edge of the platforms pointing in directions.
I thought NY cops were supposed to be evil? Maybe he was a PRETEND cop!
Nah dude the cops are totally friendly. They’re like the policemen from those children’s books where Baby meets Mr. Policeman and whatever.
In Times Square we saw two cops trying to flag down one of the van taxis for a group of tourists that bought something at Toys ‘R Us which was too big to find into the normal taxis.
If I do remember correctly, those cops are quite well paid. I’m glad you had pleasant experiences with them. Can’t say all cops are that friendly though, at least in Texas.
yeah ive seen mixed reactions with cops. there was the few nice ones we saw in NYC. then when i was at penn station a few months back, the cops were such assholes. but i guess you have that everywhere
My understanding is that over the last few years, NYC has tried to transform itself into a more pleasant city, since it had a stigma of being all about crime and rats and middle fingers. It is a big coordinated effort.