Last week, Brooklyn writer Tiffany Jackson posted photos to Instagram of a man masturbating and looking into her direction on a New York subway. Despite reporting the incident to a train conductor, who rudely brushed her off, the viral photo led to the arrest of the happy-handed creep on Wednesday.
WCBS 2 reports:
Reggie Frank, 44, of Brooklyn, was charged with public lewdness in the incident on the No. 3 train, near the Nevins Street station in downtown Brooklyn, earlier this month, police sources told CBS2.
Frank was also to be charged in a second incident on Tuesday at the Union Square station, where he allegedly exposed himself to another woman on a train. He was arrested a short time after that incident, sources told CBS2.
In the earlier incident in Brooklyn, Tiffany Jackson’s post about the experience went viral on social media – along with a complaint that the train conductor seemed uninterested in the problem. She said she saw the man masturbating while looking at her and she discreetly snapped a few photos.
“When I ran to the other conductor and told him what happened, he rolled his eyes, annoyed, and radioed dispatch,” Jackson wrote. “At this point, jerk off guy got off the train and smiled at me as he walked out the station. The conductor grumbled and told me to just go upstairs and report the incident to the booth. I wasn’t even half a step away before the conductor peeled off.
But there was no booth at the station exit where Jackson got off.
Jackson explained that Frank was standing at the top of the stairs. Jackson said she turned around, hopped a turnstile and took a train to meet with her father.
Jackson was later contacted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the NYPD.
Hip-Hop Wired spoke with Jackson, and she shared some more of what occurred during her encounter with Frank.
“This isn’t the first time this happened to me, but this was more blatant that the times in the past,” she explained. “But I’m an observant person and more than being afraid, I was just annoyed. I knew he was going to do something but what I didn’t know.”
Jackson, who grew up in New York, is familiar with the dangers and risks of riding the train and is typically prepared to handle them.
While she did see Frank at the top of the stairs, she didn’t feel as if he was in a position to threaten her. However, Jackson was without defense tools as she was preparing for a trip out of the country which prompted her to hop the turnstile and connect with her father.
Jackson credits her dad for both being a calming presence, and also for helping her to alleviate her shock and offer as much detail as she could to police.
—
Photo: Instagram
