A West Village woman used an ingenious tactic to escape from an unhinged vagrant who pulled a knife on her earlier this month — claiming she had COVID while coughing in his direction, she told The Post.
Jane Duncan was taking her usual walk a few blocks from Washington Square Park on Feb. 4 when a known local vagrant suddenly jumped in front of her and pulled a knife out of his pocket, she said.
“As he was pulling the knife, I started coughing all over the place,” the 52-year-old said.
“I was like ‘I have COVID. I’m on my way to the ER.’ As I was doing that, he had the knife out and he got scared of me and ran away.”
The man, known in the neighborhood as “Matthew,” asked, “Why are you harassing me?” when he whipped out his weapon.