The teenager involved in the Manhattan 'Citi Bike feud' has maintained that the bike belonged to him after a video of the confrontation with a pregnant hospital worked went viral.
A clip of the heated scuffle which centered around who had the right to use a Citi Bike emerged on May 12,
The video shows the encounter with a group of men who claim in the footage that they paid for the bike that a woman, identified as Sarah Comrie, 36, a hospital worker, was trying to take out.
The teen, who went by the pseudonym Michael, age 17, told NewsOne he was riding the new e-bike all day and planned to use it again after he docked it at a Kips Bay station when Comrie momentarily rented out the two-wheeler for her ride home after her shift.
The teen provided receipts to NewsOne that indicated he began using the new Citi Bike e-bike in the Bronx with a group of pals earlier that day as they made their way to Harlem.
Michael said that because he and his friends have discounted memberships to Citi Bike, they’ll dock their bikes before going over 45 minutes when more charges are applied to each ride, and then take out the same bikes when the timers reset.
Michael, who says he was holding onto the bike’s handlebars, claimed he told her he was about to take the bike back out, and then Comrie, who is pregnant, asked if he could “help a pregnant woman out.”
Michael said he again declined and told her that he rode the bike from the Bronx and needed it to get home. He said he believed she wanted the bike he was using because it was a newer model e-bike.
Comrie then allegedly leaned over him and scanned the code with her phone with his hands still on the handlebars, Michael said.
She then attempted to push her way onto the bike and remove it from the docking station, the teen alleged.
After the teen was able to push the bike back into the docking station, he said, he tried to reserve the bike on his phone.
That’s when Comrie took the phone out of his hand, he claimed.
He quickly grabbed it back, as seen on the video of the confrontation.
Meanwhile, Ms Comrie, via her lawyer, has revealed receipts which he says prove that the bike was indeed Ms Comrie's and she is trying to clear her name.
Her lawyer, Justin Marino, argued that the bike in question did belong to his client originally.
Receipts from the May 12 encounter sent to The Post appear to show a serial number matching the bike pictured in the video.
Ms Comrie reportedly had just finished a 12-hour shift before getting on an available bike which "no individuals were on or touching" and paid through the app - before being questioned by the men.
Ms Comrie then tells the man that he's "hurting my unborn baby," to which the man replies: "You put your stomach on my hand."
Mr Marino told The Independent: “Can you tell me one pregnant woman that would ever try to commandeer and steal a bike from young men? Do you think that would ever happen?"
A GoFundMe page to help Ms Comrie is pleading with people to help pay for her legal bills “to save her livelihood and her reputation.”
Started by Ms Comrie’s uncle, the fundraiser calls the incident has “unfairly painted [Comrie] as a racist ‘Karen.’”
“The facts have since proven this is a lie, but the damage has been done,” the fundraiser states.
