Transit buff due to get mental care

A TRAIN-loving man who has been arrested over 30 times over three decades for impersonating transit workers to steal buses and trains took a plea Monday that will send him to a mental health facility and not prison.

Darius McCollum, 52, was charged with criminal impersonation and grand larceny for stealing an empty Greyhound bus in Hoboken, N.J., on Nov. 8, 2015, and driving it through Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn before he was stopped by police.

McCollum (photo) admitted in court he posed as a U.S. Homeland Security Department officer to fool Greyhound employees into giving him a bus. But he also said he was not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect.

“He will finally get the mental health treatment he needs; it took us 21/2 years to get here,” said defense attorney Sally Butler.

McCollum, diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, has admitted to an obsession with public transportation. If he had been convicted, he have faced 15 years to life in prison.He will go to a mental health facility at Rikers Island to be evaluated.