The NYPD pledged Friday to give three teenage heroes the $10,000 reward they were promised for turning in a killer subway arson suspect — after the family said they had been given the cold shoulder when asking for the cash.
The three families were called by the NYPD Friday and told that friends Kingson, Navid and Christos would evenly split the monetary reward offered by police — and also get a Nintendo Switch to boot, the families said.
“They caved and that’s great news,” Christos’ mother told The Post shortly after her son received the call.
The boys, all 14, are “over the moon.”
The decision came just hours after The Post revealed that the young heroes and their families had first been told that they were inelgible for the reward because of a technicality — that the boys had called 911 when they spotted alleged arsonist Sebastian Zapeta-Calil rather than the Crimestoppers tip line.
“It’s good news. Thank you for picking up on it because I don’t know if this would have happened any other way,” Christos’ mother told The Post.
Another parent was shocked at how fast the decision was made: “It’s interesting. You write an article and then all of a sudden they’re scrambling to do this … Literally in that matter of, what, 24 hours?”
When the money and game consoles will be doled out is still up in the air, the parents said.
Earlier Friday, before the NYPD decided to give the kids the $10,000, the department said no determination had yet been made on whether the cash should go to a trio of eagle-eyed high school basketball players — but the families said that wasn’t what they were told.
“That’s not what they told us,” the father of one of the boys, Navid, told The Post Friday morning.
“What [the NYPD] told me was the fact that they have nothing to do with the reward money. That’s done by Crime Stoppers, and the Crime Stoppers told me that since the kids didn’t use the tip hotline and he was 911, that’s why they’re not eligible.”
“Whether it’s correct or not, that’s exactly what they told me.”
When asked if Crime Stoppers made it “explicitly” clear his teenager had no chance at collecting the prize, the Brooklyn dad agreed: “That is correct.”
Neither the NYPD nor Crime Stoppers even took down the family’s information — raising the question of how the family was going to be contacted in the future should the anonymous tipster agency decide the three 14-year-olds deserve the money.
Navid, along with friends Christos and Kingson, felt that their hopes were dashed — along with their plans to beef up their college savings accounts with the prize money.
“I wouldn’t know. I washed my hands of the fact after they told me this, I thought, ‘That’s too bad,’” Navid’s father continued.
After intense heat for the failure to cough up the dough, the NYPD and the NYC Police Foundation, the nonprofit that oversees the city’s Crimestoppers unit, reversed the decision.
“Given the horrific nature of the crime, and the courage these young people displayed when they saw a Crimestoppers message and reported it, we are pleased to provide them with this reward,” an NYPD spokesperson said in an email.
“We are also grateful to the New York City Police Foundation for their support of this program and for keeping our communities safe. This is an important reminder that when you see something, say something.”
Neither the NYPD nor the Police Foundation could answer why the families were ever led to believe their case was closed or that calling the wrong line would be grounds for disqualification.
Before the announcement that the cash would be paid in full, Christos’ mother alleged that the police were “stonewalling” and finger-pointing rather than making good on their promise to the Big Apple’s youth.
“To me, that’s not acceptable for the kids,” Christos’ mother, who asked to remain anonymous of her son, fumed.
“Quite simply, the boys did an exceptional job of keeping people on the train calm and catching the perpetrator. And then the police stepped in and took the perpetrator. Now, the kids deserve the reward money.”
At least seven Post readers reached out Friday and offered to cover the full $10,000.
One of the generous donors was none of the one-time owner of the New York Post and former MTA chairman Peter Kalikow — who developed the “See Something, Say Something” slogan.
“These young men called 911 and identified the criminal who set this poor woman on fire and took action to help in his capture. The fact that they didn’t have the Crime Stoppers tip line shouldn’t deprive them of this well-earned reward,” the ex-subway boss told The Post.
Even though the kids were told they would be awarded the $10,000, a representative for Kalikow said the wealthy real estate magnate would still match the reward through his own foundation.
“You want to encourage people to do this and to put up a roadblock of bureaucracy in their way — it’s terrible,” Kalikow continued, adding that he hoped to meet the three young men personally.
“[14 years old is] exactly the formative years where you can make these kids good citizens or people can say, ‘I don’t give a damn because nobody else gives a damn.’ That’s what you don’t want to happen.”
