By Roz Liston
A man in a leather jacket stole an iPhone from a female passenger at the Flushing stop of the Long Island Rail Road Thursday morning, delaying trains on the Port Washington line for about 15 minutes.
As the doors on the eastbound train started to close at 8:14 a.m., a man reached out and plucked an iPhone from the hand of a woman standing nearby, a conductor told passengers. The woman began screaming and the conductor ran out on the platform to summon police.
The conductor said this was the second time an iPhone had been stolen from a passenger traveling on the line in the last week.
The thief was wearing a brown leather jacket and ran down the steps in Flushing, he said.
At about 8:30 a.m., the train began moving and the conductor said police would interview the victim at the Great Neck stop.
Long lines of LIRR passengers were gathered on the westbound platforms waiting for trains headed for Manhattan.
