"Citi Bike Karen" allegedly identified after video trying to stealing Black youth's bike goes viral

A white woman in New York City has earned the nickname “Citi Bike Karen” after a video went viral of her trying to steal a Black youth’s rentable bicycle. The incident happened over the weekend, and social media sleuths were quick to allegedly identify the woman in the clip.

The original video showed the woman, who appeared to be an employee of NYC Health + Hospitals, trying to wrangle a Citi Bike out of the hands of a young Black man who already had it. She desperately screamed for help and at one point started to fake cry. The person behind the camera noted that she didn’t shed one tear as she was easily able to go from “crying” back to normal.

A white male dressed in scrubs behind her suggested that the youth let her take the bike, but he explained that it was already associated with his account. Finally, when the apparent hospital employee said she should take another available bike on the rack, she backed off. Check out the clip below.

Social media response to the video was swift. Critics likened her behavior to that of Carolyn Bryant, the white woman who cried wolf and caused Emmett Till’s murder. Some sleuths online were allegedly able to identify the woman as Sarah Jane Comrie, a medical physician’s assistant employed with Bellevue Hospital. They were able to glean the information from her ID card visible in the video.

In response to their purported employee going viral, the Bellevue health system shared a statement addressing the situation.

“We have recently become aware of an incident that occurred off campus over the weekend and appears to involve one of our employees,” the statement read, as seen below. “We are sorry this happened, and we are reviewing the incident. NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is committed to providing the highest quality of care to all New Yorkers with dignity, cultural sensitivity, and compassion.”