A series of blunders allowed a man to sneak into a PATH tunnel Sunday and walk the two miles from the World Trade Center to New Jersey — a harrowing security breach.
And a surveillance camera that could have spotted him has been broken for some time now, sources said yesterday.
The embarrassing safety lapses in the bowels of a site that has been struck twice by terrorists was even more glaring because supervisors had earlier noticed contract security guards yakking on their cellphones and reading newspapers instead of observing passengers, the sources said.
Surveillance video also shows the man walking past two Port Authority cops on his way into the tunnel. Reymundo Rodriguez, 20, was arrested after emerging on the Jersey City side and claiming to have placed a bomb in the tunnel. No bomb was found.
There will be more cops on subway patrol, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday, citing the PATH scare and a second incident involving four urban explorers on a picture-taking tour who accessed a Second Avenue subway tunnel.
Jacob Bloom, 21, of Glen Cove, LI, Braiden O’Sullivan, 21, of Connecticut, Eric Ruggiero, 25, of Manhattan, and William West, 27, of Massachusetts, were arraigned yesterday on criminal-trespass charges.
Additional reporting by Lach
lan Cartwright