Zaida Pugh, the woman who pretended that she was homeless and selling live crickets and worms on New York City's D train last week might be facing charges for the prank she pulled, causing huge panic in the train car she was riding. Police sources told the New York Post that it was "likely" Pugh would face charges for the stunt she pulled, but didn't have any specifics about what the charges would be or when they would be filed.
During her elaborate prank, Pugh told passengers that she was selling the crickets to make money, then began screaming and flung live crickets all over the train. Video of the prank shows passengers in a state of panic and disgust as the crickets spread around the train car.
The point of the video was to show how people react to homeless people, how people look down at them. It was also to show how people are so fixated on recording stuff, instead of helping other people. Even before I posted the video, people had their own videos up.
During the incident, Pugh screamed at passengers and urinated on the floor. Gothamist reports that at one point, someone pulled the train's emergency brake, stranding passengers over the East River for 15 minutes. Pugh repeatedly screamed incoherently, and a few different passengers tried to restrain her and get her to calm down while she was pacing up and down the car and causing further commotion. Pugh repeatedly claimed she couldn't breathe and spit on the floor.
In an interview with Gothamist, 21-year-old Pugh said she has been doing video stunts for four years, and offered an explanation for her antics,
Pugh also said that she hasn't heard from the police since they took her off the train following the incident, but said of possible charges that she "can't get mad if they do charge me." She further added that she won't use bugs in her "future projects" and expressed regret for how the crickets fiasco went down.
