NYC subway thefts soar almost 90 percent as suspected serial pickpocket goes free

Thefts in the city’s transit system have shot up nearly 90% so far this year, cops said Tuesday — the same day they announced busting an alleged serial subway pickpocket, only to watch him freed by a judge.

Grand larcenies on Big Apple subways and buses have jumped 88.9% – from 342 to 646 incidents – year to date compared to the same period in 2022, the troubling new statistics show. 

Overall major transit crime — including rapes, robberies and felony assaults — increased 52% in the same period, mirroring the city’s general trend, according to data released Monday. 

The dismal figures come as police crowed on Twitter on Tuesday that they busted accused serial pickpocket Dedrick Williams, 53, a day earlier for committing three more grand larcenies in the transit system.

“Caught & arrested again!” the NYPD tweeted. “Yesterday, @NYPDTransit Public Safety officers arrested a known pickpocket recidivist. This is the man’s 11th Grand Larceny arrest this year alone. Our officers will remain resilient in addressing subway crimes & our commitment is unwavering.”

But while the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office recommended bail at $30,000 cash for Williams, but a judge let him out on supervised release, officials said.

The suspect, who lives on East 182nd Street, has a total of 20 arrests on his record since 2004, a police source said. The majority of the arrests were for crimes in transit, the source said.

“He steals wallets and uses the credit cards if there are any,” a police spokeswoman said of Williams. “In these past three [cases], he used the victims’ credit cards.” 

Williams allegedly stole a woman’s wallet from her backpack while aboard a No. 6 subway in Manhattan at 8:45 a.m. on July 18, cops said. The woman told police “she felt a tugging and pushing on her backpack,” cops said in court documents. The woman saw the reflection of the thief in the subway door and described him to police, who were able to find surveillance video of the man, cops said.

The next day, around 8 a.m. at West 42nd Street and Broadway in Times Square, a woman felt a tugging on her backpack as she walked down the stairs to the southbound N platform, she told cops. When she looked in her backpack later, she discovered her wallet was missing along with five credit cards. 

The robber charged $130.75 on one of the cards for a MetroCard purchase, cops said. The detective reviewed surveillance video and found the suspect was the same man as in the first case, authorities said.

When they arrested Williams on Aug. 8 around 8:30 a.m. for the two crimes, police recovered a California driver’s license that belonged to a third person who was robbed, court documents show. 

Williams was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and identity theft in the incidents, cops said