Stealing Metrocards the Easy Way

Gothamist has questions for the man who stole $35,000 of Metrocards from vending machines. Like, given that Metrocards expire, did you try to use them all or did you give them to friends and family? Or did you sell them to other people? Did you just go up to subway booth clerks, asking them how much was on a card, or did you stand at one of the machines for hours, seeing what kinds of cards you had taken? And we thought cards were "empty" until you selected what kind of card you wanted from the machine...so many questions...

James Barzola, a repairman of the vending machines at LIRR stations, was arrested by the MTA police at Penn Station. He had been under surveillance for a while, after the LIRR noticed low numbers of Metrocards int eh machines. He will be arraigned on counts of grand larceny and possession of stolen property.

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By Jen Chung in News on February 25, 2004 3:13 PM

Comments [rss]

I.

Here's a free link to that article, created using the NY Times link generator.

garth

if you want to pay up, the times article is archived here

but c'mon josh, if you were a good gothamist reader you would have read it when jen told us to.

Jnalpak

Especially the point about "token sucking" ...yum!

Josh

Max, do you have a link to that article? It sounds interesting.

Max

Didn't you guys read the recent NYTimes article about Metrocard dispensers and the cons who vandalize them in order to "swipe you through" and sell metrocards? Good article actually - best part is the bit about "token sucking"........

candleblue

Well, some subway stations have those swipey things that tell you how much value's on the card... so I guess he just had to swipe one out of a stack or something.

Though I still wonder what he was gonna do with all the cards. I don't know anyone who would buy a card off some dude, unless all the machines weren't working or something. Wait, that isn't too unusual...

anon coward

uh... typo. "in the machines"

monty

maybe he planned to quit and become one of those guys who hangs out by the metrocard vending machines offering to "swipe you through, swipe you through" for like a dollar or something.