Three-year-old Christian Marquez marched out of a Queens McDonald’s yesterday, walked to the subway, and rode by himself for seven stops before the authorities could find him.
Marquez was having a little Mickey D’s with Mom around 2 p.m. yesterday in Flushing. Mom turned around for a split second to throw something away, and little Christian was off to the races. (I know what you’re thinking — the measures children will go to to avoid eating McDonald’s!)
The NY Times says there are three ways little Christian could’ve boarded the 7 train: crossing a busy stretch of Roosevelt Avenue, walking a full city block to another entrance on Main Street, or hopping an elevator located 200 feet from McDonald’s.
Someone on the train alterted police to the little boy seated by himself, and mother and child were reunited half an hour after he split, at 74th and Broadway.
Writes the Times:
Tuesday evening, the boy’s father, Jose Lino Marquez, 40, said, “Everything now is O.K.,” adding, “My son likes trains.”
Apparently even Lenore Skenazy thinks 3 is too young to ride the subway by oneself.