Don't forget the guy who is suspected of killing the dentist in front of a child. They used his subway fare bust and the fingerprints that came with it to identify him. Perhaps the police are just trying to keep us safe from future hitmen.

Trying to beat the law shows a criminal mind we

poor fools have to pay to ride so does this jerk.

I do agree who supervises the MTA and there

illustrious record under Gov.Pataki?????

this kid is inoccent wow this city freaken sucks!!! i would do the same thing that micheal garetano did. theres no reason that he was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument and theft of services. wow this dumb ass city doesnt have anything else to do...

yours truley, peepeemonster14

you all need to get a second job because you all have way too much time on your hands we all know the city sucks

Should the kid get a ticket and pay a fine? Absolutely. Should he be charged with actual crimes that go on his record? No.

"criminal possession of a forged instrument" sounds like something you would get for carrying around a fake id. This is not even remotely close to that.

This article is all wrong ok so everyone shut up and qwerty1234 is totally right and no the officer did not pull out his gun and he didnt have a real metro card on him and he took the regular metro card and glued it on the student one not the other way around and no michael is not an idiot because i bet none of you could think of that everyone that commented negative on this article you are the idiot not him

Now everyone knows you're an idiot too.

everyone who is against this kid are idiots. first of all, dont believe everything you read in the newspaper and 2nd the picture of the metro card wasnt the one the kid used, gothamist should get there facts straight and stop making this kid to be a reall criminal. and another thing it wasnt NYPD, it was a useless mta cop who thought who the hell he was.

everyone who is against this kid are idiots. first of all, dont believe everything you read in the newspaper and 2nd the picture of the metro card wasnt the one the kid used, gothamist should get there facts straight and stop making this kid to be a reall criminal. and another thing it wasnt NYPD, it was a useless mta cop who thought who the hell he was.

I really miss my buspasses from my HS days. They were made of paper and had pretty monthly color like Sherbert Orange and Canary Yellow.

i'm surprise no one has come up with a method of jamming the system with a magnet of sorts.

he is committing an egregious theft of service

notice the colored lights when you swipe your card, police watch that to see who is obviously using a discount student or elderly fare card...

dumb idea, he did not "mod" or "hack" a card...

TK when they see a 'student' using a card and they stop him or her they will ask for your student ID and schedule. You're also not allowed to use the cards during holidays. When I was in high school I used my student Metrocard during a break and almost got a $60 ticket, I lied my way out of it of course. Also the student card is inactive after 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. The card also doesn't work on weekends they have other cards they give students who need to come in on weekends. The turnstile lights up white when you use a student card.

It really is sad that college students who are going more and more in debt to educate themselves don't receive support for transportation but high school kids who show up to school half the time they should get free rides. It's shameful. The board of ed should incorporate a new system for these kids and stop letting them out at rush hour so they can harass people.

That 'modded' metrocard pictured is one of the lamest things I've ever seen.

The MTA is a mess so it is ok for this kid to steal from the city and it's residents.

I can't stand that BS or the way people seem to think kids of all ages ride free. Pay for your kid

the way to tell if someone is using a fake metrocard is really simple. Usually students only use the metrocard at certain times in the morning like 7-9 am to get to public school. The MTA officers look for weird patterns of times were a public school metrocard is used in a certain location numerous times. So, if they see that a public school metrocard is being used at 11-2 pm at different locations all the time they will try to pinpoint the first location and start observing. People are creatures of habit and live in a circuit. If you use your fake metrocard near your house everyday at 11am they will get you one of these days.

You know the little red strip of light that shows up when they disable one of the turnstiles? When you swipe your card, another bar of light will display, and the color corresponds to the colors on the bus (adult, student, senior, etc.).

The MTA are much bigger crooks than this poor FIT student.

MTA should have college discounts like NJ transit does. NJ Transit even lets college students ride free for a week about twice a year.

Did the officer pull his gun out?