Mikey J - How I Could've Swiped This Bus

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U.S. Openracket-eerslaying low

BYMIKE JACCARINODAILYNEWS STAFFWRITER

DARIUS WAS RIGHT. It is easy to steal abus.

Just four days after mass-transit menaceDarius McCollum swiped a Trailways busfrom a Hoboken depot and drove it throughManhattan to Kennedy Airport, I nearly re-peated theact.

In broad daylight yesterday, I returned tothe same depot and retraced his footsteps.Only good sense — not guards — kept me fromdrivingoff.

Motor coaches from numerous bus linessat in the sun, some of them with their doorswide open. They were almost crying out to betaken. A fence topped with barbed wire cir-cled the bus depot, but it might as well havenotbeen there.They left thegateopen. Ididn’tsee any security guards — only a few driversandmechanics.

I walked the 15yards from the side-walk to the bus withmy heart furiouslypumping and nerveson edge. I boarded anempty Trailways bus —oneof four in the lot.

Amazingly, Trail-ways had left the keysin the ignition again. Igot behind the wheeland started the engine,heard its growl and feltits rumble. I resistedthe temptation todriveoff, turned off the bus and slowly walked outas ifnothinghappened.

It was equal parts Ralph Kramden andWillieSutton—but undeniablyMcCollum.

Now I can relate to McCollum. In an exclu-sive jailhouse interview last week, he told theDaily News why he preferred stealing busesrather than working as a legit driver. “It’s thethrill of taking it,” he said. “It’s an adrenalinerush.”

I got a small taste of that rush, and can onlyimagine what he felt last Tuesday as he drovethe Trailways coach during rush hour intoManhattan. Once there, McCollum, 45,picked up a group of unsuspecting flight atten-dants at the Hotel Pennsylvania on 33rd St.,telling them, “I’m a bus driver,” and ferryingthemtoKennedyAirport freeof charge.

Trailways officials didn’t return calls yester-day.

McCollum, who has Asperger syndrome, aform of autism, said he has swiped 150 busesover the lastdecade.Cops havebustedhim27timesover the last29years.

Authorities charged McCollum with grandlarceny auto and possession of stolen proper-ty for his latest heist. He faces 15 years in pris-on, and is awaiting his fate in a floating jail inthe Bronx. When he was caught in Queens —ontheVanWyckExpresswayonhis waybackfrom Kennedy — McCollum told the arrestingofficer, “I’ll bet theywon’t leave thekeys in theignition. I’ll bet they’ll bemorecarefulnow.”

Notyet. [email protected]

THERE WON’T BE a second exitforStevenSlaterat jetBlue.

The airline yesterday cannedthe flight attendant who slid intofolk-hero status last month whenhe jumped down a plane’s emer-gency chute with beers in hand af-ter telling off passengers at

KennedyAirport.

Spokes-womanJen-ny Dervinsaid yester-day thatSlater, 38,of Queens,is no longeremployedby the air-

line. She said the airline won’t re-lease furtherdetails.

Slater’s lawyer had said his“take this jobandshove it”heroicsprompted tens of thousands of on-line fans to urge the airline to keephimon.

Slater, who had been suspend-ed by the airline, still faces crimi-nal mischief, reckless endanger-mentand trespassing charges. The Associated Press

HOW I COULD’VESWIPED THIS BUS

Daily News reporter Mike Jaccarino had little trouble hopping on and starting up a bus at thesame depot where famed bus-stealer Darius McCollum boosted a bus on Tuesday.

“It’s an adrenalinerush,” says bus thiefDarius McCollum.

NO LOVE MATCH: See the video NYDailyNews.com

jetBlue showsSlater exit door

THE THREE tennis fans whoseheated brawl caused a racket atthe U.S. Open took a much mel-lower approach yesterday, keep-ing quiet and maintaining a low-profile.

Joey Pedevill, 27, whose drunk-en f-bomb tirade in the stands onThursday night sparked the fightwith Tracey Falco and her dad,Lawrence Burnett, never set footoutofhisMurrayHill apartment.

Meanwhile, Falco, 49, cameand went from her Long Islandhome, but didn’t comment on thevolley of words exchanged withPedevill.

Video footage of the fightshows Falco at one point smack-ing Pedevill. Later Burnett tries tochoke him, leading to an all-outbrawl.

Burnett, 75, said nothing yes-terdayas he lefthis sprawlingEastStroudsburg,Pa., estate.

A neighbor who did not giveher name was shocked that Bur-nett, a stroke survivor, was in-volved in thescrape.

“It is so out of character forhim,” the neighbor said. “Everytime I’ve talked to Larry, he’s Mr.NiceGuy.”

All three have been bannedfrom the Queens tennis majorthroughSept. 30,2012.

Joe Jackson, Irving DeJohn,Henrick Karoliszynand James Fanelli

DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com Sunday, September 5, 2010 3mI

END ZONE

CAPTAINTWILIGHT

Questions abound about Derek Jeter’s slumping bat, his contract situation and

possibility of future position changeBY ANTHONY MCCARRON

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

One of Derek Jeter’s great strengths throughout his career has been his ability to hit with an uncluttered mind. While some play-

ers come to the plate with a men-tal checklist to fl ip through

− Where are my hands? Where is the pitcher’s re-lease point? − Jeter has a simple prime directive: See the ball, swing, hit it hard.

Lately, though, as Jeter has struggled in what

by several statistical mea-sures is his worst season,

it’s easy to wonder if other thoughts have started crowd-ing his head. The slender, handsome Yankee icon, who once seemed forever young, is now a seemingly-aging 36-year-old shortstop in the last year of his contract who has just four hits in his last 38 at-bats and is batting only .266, 48 points below his career

mark of .314.Is it simply a slump, an off-year

or the start of the inevitable twilight of his career? Questions swirl about

his production, his contract and whether he may have to change positions at some point during his career.

Jeter’s defenders note that he had a su-

perlative 2009 season in which he remade himself as a shortstop and that he’s on pace to score 114 runs this year. His critics say 2008 was a sub-par season, too, and that he should be moved down in the Yankee lineup because his batting average, on-base percentage (.332) and slugging percentage (.374) would be career lows if the season ended today.

“I think Derek is struggling and it’s a classic case of late on the fastball and early on the off-speed pitches,” says YES analyst John Flaherty, Jeter’s former teammate. “One thing you never really see from Derek is that he’s hitting a lot of weak ground balls to short and third. When Derek is right, he’s hitting everything the other way, the fast-ball especially, and then if you throw him a breaking ball, that’s what he’d pull and drive. Right now, it looks like he’s trying to get out early and get the baseball − cheating is what they call it.

“I don’t think it’s because he’s 36. I think he’s going through a rough stretch,” Fla-herty continues. “That said, Derek is also one of the streakiest hitters we’ve seen and he could go 10-for-15 and then no one would be talking about this.”

n n nBut the talk is likely to continue into the

winter, regardless of how the rest of the sea-son goes for the Yankees and Jeter − some predict a September surge in the cooler weather followed by his typical strong Oc-tober play, which would save his season. His 10-year, $189 million contract expires after the season and, while both sides have said they want to work out a new deal, the reso-lution of Jeter’s contract could be a signifi -

GAMES

158152

AT-BATS

668

615

Runs

114112

Hits

177195

2B

3031

3B

44

HRs

12

16

STATS INCREDIBLE

86 Sunday, September 5, 2010 DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com

Im