WACKO BUSJACK
Fired driver rants and ‘seizes vehicle’
A fired MTA bus driver hijacked an M101 on the Upper East Side on Tuesday morning and took it on a threeblock joyride — even attempting to pick up passengers along the way, sources said.
Rogue former MTA worker Charita Headley, 34, boarded the bus, lit up a cigarette and started babbling in the back of the bus at around 7:10 a.m. near Third Avenue and East 97th Street, the sources said.
“They’re coming after me. They’re going to shoot me!” Headley ranted to the other passengers as she puffed away.
The driver told Headley several times to put out her butt and demanded she get off, but she refused.
He then radioed a supervisor to have a replacement bus meet them at the corner so the other passengers could be taken off and put on a new vehicle while authorities dealt with Headley.
As soon as he stopped the bus and got the puzzled passengers off, Headley — who was fired by the MTA in July for extended absences — allegedly hopped into the driver’s seat and began motoring up Third Avenue.
She even hearkened back to her good old days of picking up riders.
“The crazy lady manages to take off and pulls into the bus stop at 100th Street as if she’s going to pick up passengers,” an MTA union source said.
But as Headley made the pit stop, the replacement bus cut her off. An MTA worker then ran up to her bus, reached into the driver’s side window and pushed the hydraulic button, disabling it.
Headley was promptly taken into custody and transported to Metropolitan Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
She was later charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, according to police.
The Bronx resident is currently involved in a civilrights case in Manhattan federal court against her Foxhurst landlord and maintenance man, seeking “somewhere between $3 million and $8.5 billion” after they allegedly refused to service her apartment because she is black, according to court documents.
Neighbors and local business workers described Headley as mentally unstable.
“The things she did over the years, I don’t have time to tell you,” said a resident of Headley’s building.
An employee at a nearby deli added, “She is loco. Only a crazy person would do that . . . [and] she is crazy.”
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts and Daniel Prendergast