New Yorkers Step In To Wipe Away Anti-Semitic Graffiti On Subway Car

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Swastikas and messages of hate were scrawled in a subway train recently, but New York City commuters took quick action when they noticed.

As CBS2's Erin Logan reported, a passenger refused to let the symbols of hate be posted for even a second after noticing. He got onto a No. 1 Train at Times Square-42nd Street, and the car sat down in was covered with Nazi symbolism Saturday night.

The passenger, Jared Nied, told CBS2 how it felt watching dozens come together to wipe that hate away.

Nied said when he got on the train, all the subway maps were covered in black marker with Nazi symbols, swastikas, and even sayings: "Jews belong in the oven."

"The woman sitting opposite from me under the map must have read it on my face, because she just looked at me, goes: "I know. Isn't it awful? I mean, maybe there's some way to erase it?" Nied said.

Nied quickly realized that alcohol takes off sharpie markings.

He asked passengers for hand sanitizer and tissues -- which many carry with them -- and they erased the hate messages. Within three minutes, he said it was all gone, thanks to the team work of about 35 people helping out.

Logan asked Nied how it felt that everyone wanted the messages gone.

"Just unified -- which is… that's one word I would not use to describe America today," he said, "like, unified -- just powerful."

Nied said if he was going to go viral for something, it had better be something good. A picture of him on social media cleaning up the graffiti at last check had almost 500,000 likes and more than 300,000 shares.

Just two days before the No. 1 Train incident, a passenger on a B Train noticed an American flag with swastikas drawn on it in green. The swastika was then boxed in black with the letters "L-O-V-E."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted an image of the altered graffiti, saying: "That's what New Yorkers do. We turn hate into love."

Meanwhile, other passengers were glad they did not see any of the hate messages firsthand.

"It's very nasty," one passenger said.

As far as Nied's involvement, a woman on the subway said, "I think what he did is very typical of New York values."

Gov. Cuomo said the incident is being investigated as part of a statewide hate crimes task force.