Bad MetroCard Machine Leads to 800K Windfall, Arrests

A trio of grifters allegedly bilked the MTA out of $800,000 over the past three years by exploiting a software glitch in a single MetroCard machine in Penn Station. According to the Post, police have arrested a Roosevelt, Long Island resident named Cary Grant (ha), his wife Lisa Foster Jordan, and their friend Christopher Clemente, a former student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School whose scholastic career ended in 1990 when he was convicted for heroin and weapons possession.

Clemente's father, Henry, tells the Post, "It's not like him to be involved in something like this." Clemente had seven MetroCards in his wallet when police took him into custody last week. MTA officials say Jordan was the one who first discovered the "magic" MetroCard machine, which enabled customers to get free MetroCards and Long Island railroad tickets if they used a debit card from a non-local bank with insufficient funds in the account. Officials swear that the odds of Jordan stumbling upon the error were "astronomical," and the scam was only discovered after a routine agency audit... a few years after the first free card was dispensed.

In the meantime, Jordan and Grant allegedly enlisted Clemente to help them sell the cards to commuters on the LIRR and New York subway system. The Post reports that cops who were staking out the machine last May caught Jordan with a list of customer orders; Grant and Clemente weren't picked up until last week. All three were charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, and the Penn Station MetroCard machine joins a growing family of malfunctioning subway machines.

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By John Del Signore in News on August 12, 2008 11:11 AM

Comments [rss]

Politburo

"I don't see how this is theft."

Then why don't you explain to the class how receiving goods for sale without paying isn't theft.

lucyvanpelt

This guy lived in my dorm at UPenn. I remember his buddies setting out a table on Locust Walk to solicit donations towards his bail.

Go Quakers!

cucarachita

I don't see how this is theft. It seems to me the only thing they have on them is the abused, empty bank account, and that's the bank's problem.

NannyState

How sad is it for these two that they hit the jackpot and it's a Metrocard machine? Instead of going to jail and paying back restitution, they should have just gone down to AC and blown their lunch money with the rest of the losers.

esquared

MTA has been bilking straphangers for a much larger amount than $800K, and yet no one has arrested MTA.

latb

ah, who says an ivy league education's not worth it...

Kojak

Its funny because they could've gotten away with it after just the first 400k.

Their greed was their downfall.

Politburo

"How is it "stolen" prpoerty when the machine dispensed it?"

If you are getting something for free when you know you should be paying, it's still stealing under the law. For instance if you punch $20 into the ATM and it somehow spits out $200, it's not a free $180. Monopoly lied to us. There is no such thing as a bank error in your favor.

GOP

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

r_friend

Silly me--only using my debit card when I have funds available... Psshhht...

Toby von Meistersinger

It sounds more like a LIRR ticket machine. Some, if not all can dispense MetroCards.

whitecastlerock

was this magic machine able to accept debit/credit cards a few weeks ago?

aveB4life

ingenius. i'm mad jealous

Snoopy

Clemente's father, Henry, tells the Post, "It's not like him to be involved in something like this." No not at all, he only caries weapons and does a pound of heroin a day. He's sings in his choir also as well as being a Little League coach.