A portion of a storage room converted into a “man cave” under Grand Central Terminal in New York. Image: MTA Inspector General via AP
Three railroad workers have been suspended for turning a storage room under New York’s Grand Central Terminal into an unauthorized “man cave” with a television, a refrigerator, a microwave and a futon couch, officials said Thursday.
A Metropolitan Transportation Authority investigation found that managers at Metro-North Railroad were unaware of the hideaway beneath Track 114.
The flat-screen TV in the unauthorized “man cave.” Image: MTA Inspector General via AP
“Many a New Yorker has fantasized about kicking back with a cold beer in a prime piece of Manhattan real estate — especially one this close to good transportation,” MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said in a news release. “But few would have the chutzpah to commandeer a secret room beneath Grand Central Terminal.”
Three Metro-North employees — a wireman, a carpenter foreman and an electrical foreman — were suspended without pay pending disciplinary hearings.
The investigation began after the MTA’s office of the inspector general received an anonymous tip in February 2019 alleging that there was a “man cave” under Grand Central with “a couch and a flat-screen t.v.” where three specific employees would “hang out and get drunk and party.”
Managers at Metro-North Railroad were unaware of the hideaway beneath Track 114. Image: MTA Inspector General via AP
Investigators found the room, which had wooden cabinets designed to conceal the TV and futon, according to the report.
Railroad officials said the space presented a fire hazard because rescue workers would have had difficulty accessing an unmapped room. RGA
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