A famed subway performer whose been playing the musical saw underground for more than two decades says she’s been feeling bad vibrations about her safety – even before a tattooed hooligan brazenly stole cash from her tip bucket in the Union Square station this week.
Bystander video shows Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz wield her bowstring – normally used to coax otherworldly sounds from her instrument – against a shoeless man as he shamelessly grabbed a handful of her hard-earned tips Tuesday.
The tattoo-covered, shoeless brigand runs off toward the station’s turnstiles, as Paruz can be heard helplessly calling for the police.
Paruz exclusively told The Post it’s only the latest threatening incident she’s experienced in recent months, despite a surge of National Guard and cops in the subways.
“When that actually happened, that was fantastic,” she said. “But that didn’t last. It was a great initiative, but it doesn’t replace the need for local police officers to actually man the police stations.
“I’ve never felt menaced before. This is a new thing.”
For 25 years, Paruz and her musical saw have been a familiar sight and sound for straphangers.
The self-styled “Saw Lady” delights in busking subways as one of 350 sanctioned performers in the MTA’s Music Under New York program, but she has also performed in orchestras, films and provided the chilling music to Robert Durst’s chilling murder confession in the first season of HBO’s “The Jinx.”
But Paruz said the subways have increasingly felt unsafe since 2021, when performers returned underground after a 14-month, COVID-driven hiatus.
Repeated run-ins with menacing weirdos — including a bucket drummer who threatened to beat her up and destroy her equipment — recently forced her to stop playing altogether in Times Square station.
“Now the situation is so bad there – crazy people, homeless people and no police whatsoever,” she said.
“It’s a concern because I don’t want the Union Square subway station to deteriorate like Times Square.”
Paruz said she brushed it off when a man stole a CD from her this week in Union Square — but that the caught-on-video robbery Tuesday sent her fear skyrocketing.
She worries that even if the thief is caught, he’ll be cut loose without bail like the woman who whacked a subway cellist, a friend of hers, over the head with a metal water bottle.
“What is the point in police catching criminals if there’s no deterrent?” she said.
The NYPD confirmed that Paruz made a complaint about the theft, which police sources said was for $2. Paruz said that’s the amount of cash she puts in her tip bucket before she starts performing, and she doesn’t know how much more the thief grabbed.
Transit crime citywide is down 5.5% so far this year compared to the same span in 2023, NYPD data shows. This week, it’s up nearly 18% compared to the same week last year.
— Additional reporting by Joe Marino
