The chicken that greeted an early-morning train crew in Queens last week had been left behind by a straphanger the previous evening, the Daily News has learned.
The bird — which, as previously reported by the Daily News, took a subway out of service after it refused to leave a southbound train on the Astoria Line — had been on the train car all night when transit crews discovered it aboard a parked train early last Thursday morning.
The chicken — whose odyssey was first reported by The News — boarded the W train Wednesday evening, carried in the arms of a man who boarded the train from an elevated platform somewhere in northern Queens sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., according to two sources who viewed surveillance footage from the train. The man appeared on the footage to show the chicken to other passengers.
At some point, the footage showed, the man set the bird down on the seat beside him and disembarked — leaving his feathered friend behind.
“The chicken remains seated,” one source narrated, opining that the bird was “properly, respectfully seated” during its ride, and “did not appear to violate any Transit rules.”
The bird was quiet enough it was apparently missed when the train crew checked the subway for stragglers after parking on the lay-up track south of Astoria-Ditmars about 10:30 pm at the end of the night.
As first reported by The News, when the fowl was discovered by the next train crew the following morning, it had fouled the car overnight.
In a report to MTA’s rail control, one transit worker added that the bird was refusing to leave.
The soiled subway — which sources told The News was about to go into service as a W train — was eventually pulled from service after transit workers were unable to persuade the poultry to part. The train was recalled to Coney Island Yard for cleaning, taking the chicken with it on a three-borough trek.
Upon its arrival at the yard, a source told The News that several transit workers fed the fowl bread while awaiting Animal Control.
Animal Care Centers of NYC — the contractor that handles animal control services for the city — did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The News regarding the chicken’s current whereabouts.
