The dreadlocked joyrider who allegedly took a Queens MTA prepare on a one-stop spin final week is an 18-year-old repeat transit offender who racked up a dozen arrests this yr – most of them on the rails, police mentioned.
Justine Randall-Pizarro allegedly commandeered the locked N prepare simply after 4 a.m. June 17 on the Broadway station in Astoria earlier than driving it to the thirty sixth Avenue cease, police mentioned.
Pizarro – together with her hair styled in reddish-orange dreads, carrying a black hat and black Crocs – entered the prepare parked within the station’s lay-up monitor via the conductor’s cab earlier than the illicit jaunt, based on prosecutors and regulation enforcement sources.
Investigators imagine Pizarro – who fled the scene after the pre-dawn stunt – used a key to get the prepare operating, the sources mentioned.
When detectives questioned Pizarro after her Tuesday arrest, she admitted to hijacking the prepare whereas videochatting with a pal and mentioned she had the keys to entry it, based on prosecutors.
“I mean, I’m near Astoria. Bet,” she informed an investigator, based on a grievance filed in Queens Legal Courtroom. “I went to Broadway, and behold – there was a lay-up train there. Still on FaceTime with my homeboy, so I drove it while I was on FaceTime with him.”
“And, I don’t know, we was just fooling around, turning up on FaceTime like while I was driving it,” the teenager mischief-maker continued. “And I just drove it to 36th Avenue, got off.”
“I mean I don’t do the stealing myself, the people steal the keys for me,” she defined. “Usually – and I guess they steal them for themselves. But usually, yeah, they do steal them from workers.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny mentioned that Pizarro had been arrested 12 occasions in 2025 – most “related to transit incidents, whether it be burglary, reckless endangerment, train surfing or larceny from transit property.”
“This person is basically a transit recidivist who keeps breaking into trains,” the chief added. “When she breaks into them, she moves them, she steals items – train keys, things of that nature.”
Again on June 23 within the Bronx, Pizarro allegedly entered a feminine conductor’s cabin when a No. 5 prepare was stopped on the final station, Gun Hill Highway, and allegedly stole her private bag, prosecutors mentioned.
Prosecutors had requested that Pizarro be held on $20,000 bail or $60,000 bond, however a choose launched her on her personal recognizance.
On June 1, she allegedly bought behind the controls of one other prepare and took it for an early-morning spin at Van Siclen Avenue in Brooklyn, prosecutors mentioned.
Prosecutors requested for $25,000 money bail or $50,000 bond, however Choose Masatera Marubashi minimize her unfastened on supervision.
And on Might 26 on board an R prepare at 86th Road and 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge, Pizarro allegedly unleashed pepper spray in an MTA employee’s face, based on the prison grievance.
The DA’s workplace requested for her to be held on $20,000 money or $40,000 bond, however she was additionally granted supervised launch in that case.
In Sundown Park, Brooklyn on April 21, she allegedly stole a backpack holding a number of objects together with MTA keys, an MTA radio and an MTA flashlight from the operator’s cabin of an R prepare at 59th Road and 4th Avenue.
On Might 15, she allegedly stole a backpack holding keys and an MTA escape masks from a motorman’s cabin inside a D prepare at 86th Road and Bay Parkway, prosecutors mentioned.
Each circumstances aren’t eligible for bail by state regulation, the Brooklyn DA’s Workplace mentioned.
Within the April case, prosecutors requested for supervised launch, however Choose Philip Tisne launched her on her personal recognizance.
Within the second case, prosecutors had been in a position to ask for bail due to her earlier open case – so that they requested $2,000 money or $4,000 bond.
However Choose Jevet Johnson granted Pizarro supervised launch.
All 4 of the Brooklyn circumstances might be consolidated into one going ahead, a DA’s workplace spokeswoman mentioned.
