A budding actress and married mother of two who released hundreds of live worms and crickets in an NYC subway car in a chaotic prank has been arrested.

Zaida Pugh, 21, posed as a deranged woman last week on a Brooklyn-bound D train. She pretended that she wanted to sell the insects until a man - who was later revealed to be an accomplice - intentionally flipped the container holding them, sending 300 crickets and 300 worms across the Subway car.

Pugh, from Brooklyn, said the situation got out of hand as she didn't expect that someone would pull the emergency brake. But that is what happened, and passengers were stuck inside an AC-less car for 30 minutes while Pugh stayed in character - and let her prank escalate to unforeseen heights.

She kept screaming and acting erratically, at one point urinating on herself. But Pugh has since revealed the whole thing was a set-up and claims she was trying to shed light on how homeless people are treated in public places.

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Actress Zaida Pugh (pictured left and right), 21, posed as a deranged woman last week on a Brooklyn-bound D train, eventually releasing hundreds of live crickets and worms

Pugh, who according to her Facebook profile has a husband and two young children, was arrested Tuesday.

She faces charges of reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration, false reporting an incident and disorderly conduct, the New York Daily News reported.

An 18-minute video shows how Pugh, who studied at Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School according to her Facebook profile. pulled the prank on a crowded D train last week.

Dressed in a turquoise dress and blue clogs, wearing a black scarf on her heard, Pugh acted as though she was trying to sell the bugs.

The married mother of two (pictured) claims she didn't think anyone would stop the car and that the prank escalated further than she anticipated

Pugh (pictured left in a Facebook shot and right during her prank) was arrested on Tuesday after sending an entire Subway car into chaos

At one point she yelled that she was just trying to make money to 'cure her sickness'.

Pugh then pretended to retch, projected snot, and ultimately announced she had to pee, before relieving herself in the middle of the closed subway car.

'I did [urinate] but didn't purposely mean to,' Pugh told the New York Post.

'It was very hot and I was holding my bladder. When I realized we weren't going anywhere, I said, 'I'm gonna just let it out.''

Pugh, who has participated in similar pranks for four years, admitted that the people attacking her in the video were part of the stunt - but insisted that the aim of her projects was to show 'what homeless people go through and how people treat them'.

Authorities took her to the New York Methodist Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after the ordeal.

'Initially, we thought she was an emotionally disturbed person. She went out and made further statements to the press that she had done this on purpose,' Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

'She put people at risk. People could have had heart attacks, people could have had all kinds of issues, emotionally scarred from that. So, she's going to be charged with a misdemeanor and if she speaks to us that's great, and if she doesn't that's great too.'