Reported by: Tim Minton
NBC
The New York City subway is littered with policeman, federal agents, transit workers, good Samaritans and, most importantly, cameras, so it is somewhat amazing that a 13-year-old boy from could completely disappear in the system for over week.
But Frankie Hernandez Jr. did just that.
The bespectacled teen suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a relatively mild form of autism, and spent 11 days riding the rails after he got in trouble at school and feared he would get in more trouble at home.
Frankie said he spent the 11 days in October traveling through four boroughs on the train, completely undetected despite constant search efforts.
On October 26 a transit cop found him in a Coney Island station, but still no one has been able to find an explanation for how he was able to lay low for so long.
The police say they did everything they could from the beginning, including interviewing school officials, classmates and passing out leaflets all over the city.
Frankie said he ate whatever he could afford from subway newsstands, like potato chips and jellyrolls, then neatly folded the wrappers and saved them in his backpack.
He says he slept most of the time and used the bathroom at the Stillwell Avenue station.
