SEPTA: Crazed teen hopped atop trains to escape cops

THIS KID really wanted to get home from school.

A 16-year-old boy went ballistic Monday afternoon at the Erie-Torresdale stop of SEPTA's Market-Frankford El, fighting with the agency's Transit Police, threatening to punch a cashier and then hopping onto the roof of a moving train.

"This was bizarre behavior, something we've never seen before," Transit Police Inspector Steven Harold said yesterday. "Obviously, this juvenile has mental issues, and is extremely lucky that he didn't hurt someone or himself."

Just after 3:30 p.m., the boy filed into the station behind classmates after dismissal from the nearby Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School, Harold said. He tried to swipe a student TransPass at a turnstile, but it didn't work.

Flustered, the teen walked over to the station's cashier, who told him that the pass wasn't working because it already had been used a few minutes earlier, a security feature used to prevent theft, Harold said.

The boy was not enthusiastic about that explanation.

He caused a scene, screaming profanities at the cashier and threatening to "punch her in the face," Harold said.

Two nearby Transit Police officers intervened and tried to calm him. A fight broke out, with the teen throwing punches and f-bombs.

Then, with linebacker-like agility, the kid slipped past the officers and vaulted over a turnstile.

He ran onto the train platform and into an idling eastbound train, with the officers close on his heels.

The cops stopped the train from leaving, and the teen - recorded in surveillance footage that plays like a discount "Die Hard" - stepped between two cars and pulled himself onto the roof of the train.

Meanwhile, a westbound train entering the station slowed down as its engineer spotted the pubescent "John McClane" standing on the other train's roof.

The teen then vaulted over to the still-moving train across the tracks and climbed down. He ran down nearby stairs, but found more Transit Police waiting for him, Harold said.

Still set on escaping, the teen tried to hop into a gap between the stairway's railing and a nearby wall, but got stuck in the space, hanging about 15 feet above ground, Harold said.

The officers took him to Aria Health's Torresdale hospital, where it was determined that he wasn't injured.

He was charged with resisting arrest, interruption of mass transit, criminal trespassing and related offenses, Harold said.

After his arrest and booking, the teen apologized to the officers and tried to explain his bizarre behavior.

According to Harold, the boy attributed it to "anger-management problems and issues with authority."