Runaway Lets Subway Do the Running For Him

A 13-year-old with Asperger's syndrome spent 11 days living on NYC subway trains last month. Francisco Hernandez Jr. says he never left the subway system that whole time, subsisting on newsstand snack food and bottled water. He'd run away to avoid punishment at home after getting in trouble at school, but lost his sense of time. "He was prepared, he said, to remain in the subway system forever."

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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anatidaeling

Slake’s Limbo by Felice Holman, a really good middle-grade adventure novel, is about a boy who lives in the subway system. Life imitates art!
warreno

Jeez. His mom kept all the signs they made to try to find him?

Sounds like the kid isn’t the only one who has problems.
- Gloria
  
  Why is that problematic?
- Jim
  
  Sounds like his mom was worried that it might happen again and kept them just in case.
  - mdh
    
    It will happen again. Lady knows her kid.
Anonymous

quote, “No one spoke to him. Asked if he saw any larger meaning in that, he said, â€œNobody really cares about the world and about people.â€”
- phisrow
  
  @Anonymous #3: Sounds like a sharp kid, if lacking a bit in sense of proportion.
Michael Smith

All he needs now is a set of tricked out roller skates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subway_(film)
- mdh
  
  @ Michael Smith – “Batman Batman, this is Robin, do you read me?”
Daemon

Reminds me of an old song: M.T.A. by The Kingston Trio