Woman Sues LIRR After Being Detained Over "Fake" Ticket

Lara Tepper, exonerated ticket forger.

On the evening of August 5th, Long Island resident Lara Tepper was riding the train from Hicksville to Manhattan to meet friends for dinner. But her plans were seriously derailed after an LIRR conductor accused her of using a counterfeit ticket. Tepper says she purchased the 10-trip ticket for $66 in July, and had already used it four times, but when the conductor came to punch her ticket, "She looked at it, felt it for a couple of minutes, and said it's fake." That's because the ticket was missing the MTA logo hologram "Watch the gap" warning.

Tepper says that when she arrived at Penn Station, "like 15 cops" were waiting, and they escorted her to a 6-foot-by-6-foot holding cell at the MTA police's offices in the station. She tells Newsday, "At this point, I was hysterical, because I realized what was going on." Police told her she could be fingerprinted, spend the night in the cell and face a judge in the morning. But eventually, a lieutenant took her ticket to a veteran LIRR conductor, who scratched the back of the ticket to reveal a hidden MTA logo. Cops then checked with the LIRR Hicksville office, where it was confirmed that the ticket was printed on a stock that had been out of circulation for years. Oopsy!

More than three hours after she boarded the train, Tepper was released with an apology and a brand new 10-trip ticket! But her attorney says that's not good enough; he just filed a suit seeking $500,000 in damages, and says the whole affair was "quite a lot of overkill."

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By John Del Signore in News on August 14, 2009 4:31 PM

Comments [rss]

yytttt

...to serve and protect...

Reflect

Prison Industrial Complex is hungry

inoyourider

Fuck these BS lawsuits!

She should get a few extra tickets, and that's all.

yytttt

Fuck you. Go spend the night in jail and tell us how you like it.

Felix Hoenikker

31 replies and not one 'I'd hit that'. Shocking.

Guest

She's orange.

EricRoberts

isn't everyone from LI orange?

Stewart

Yes, there is something in the water. Look at Lindsey Lohan.

NannyState

Yeah, I'd "detain" that.

woodendesigner

Well they did only supply a head shot. I'm with you though..... amazing.

Jen S

I find it hard to believe that this woman is only 25.

nycnewsjunkie

I wonder why our fares keep increasing? BS Lawsuits maybe, they get settled or go to court and the juries side with the rider.

drunk man falls down onto tracks loses his leg...7 mil.

lirr and metro north rides cant step over a 8 in gap...20+ mil

give this women free lirr for 1 yr, she was held for 2 HOURS (- 1 hr for train ride), big deal.

Dwayne Hoover

That conductor and MTA officers should all be sodomized with broomsticks by the NYPD.

holyfrjole

If I was this chick, I'd say screw the $500K... I'd settle for $0 if they'd fire the schmucky conductor who started this whole mess.

Snoopy

Then you would be talking the fat Al and all his shit.

NannyState

So the LIRR is selling scratch and win lottery tickets? Big deal.

Mr Mel

I hope she scores big with this. She should have been released immediately and issued a ticket. The RR could have settled this for a free monthly ticket, but they haven't got any common sense.

RevWaldo

Betcha dollars to donuts the MTA has a fake ticket bounty, giving conductors cash incentive to turn people in. Otherwise this would've been your basic "whatever" moment. ("Ah, crap, y'know what? My card is empty." "Whatever...")

fauxsella

Good to know that we're not devolving into a non-democratic police state where police can detain you because of an overzealous LIRR conductor.

Lawsuits are usually b.s., but this one is worthy.

Snoopy

"the conductor came to punch her ticket, "She looked at it, felt it for a couple of minutes, and said it's fake."

Is there any description of this perp?

"took her ticket to a veteran LIRR conductor, who scratched the back of the ticket to reveal a hidden MTA logo" PRESTO instant $500,000 winner. Fuck the MTA, they have the hidden numbers and don't want to pay out? Screw them and the assholes that work there.

Dead Himmler

The MTA has great people who work hard everyday. You need to be more trusting with the numbers. Everything is legit and on the level.

emilydickinson

What makes her case valid is that the LIRR has a mechanism in place (the 'secret' hologram on the back) that they didn't use. If the original conductor or the police knew what they were doing, a quick check of the ticket would have solved all of this.

JenChungsBaby

She'll get something, maybe 10 grand. She does have a good case but half a mil is overkill.

Snoopy

There are lawyer fees you know.

ckl

Sometimes things happen.

yello10

$500k for an honest mistake? Come on now. . . We've all be "delayed" in some fashion in NYC.

detective jarvis

delayed? are you joking? she was not delayed. there was no delay in this story. she was ARRESTED! Arressted and delayed are to very different things. if you were stopped by a small army of cops on your way somewhere and told you were going to jail, im sure you would not call it being delayed. dont be a moron!

DownandoutNYC

Honest mistake,yes. But what about the actions of the police involved? I can think of a dozen scenarios where this situation could have been handled more appropriately. They forcefully stopped an honest woman and locked her in a cell. Sorry, please enjoy this voucher for a few free rides. I hope she wins.

madzack

this is bullllllllshit.

etypical

she should be glad she wasn't shot 41 times.

Snoopy

Why might I ask she wasn't sodomized and given a strip search after and before the event? Isn't that normal for the organization?

nicemarmot

Ah, the NYPD. Always doing whatever's easiest instead of what's right.

nicemarmot

Actually, I take that back. It wasn't the NYPD. Ah well, same applies to most cops.

Spirit of 76

Did you read that story in Newsday about the sheriff's deputy upstate who yanked a mother out of her minivan and then tasered her? All for a couple of bogus charges that the DA dismissed, including driving 50 in a 45 zone (which the deputy says he knew by following her for a while, not by using a radar gun). Gotta love cops.

nicemarmot

Yes I did. Cop having a bad day takes it out on innocent mother with kids in the car. Lovely really.

jules1000

I would have sued for one TRILLION!

yes, that's right! extreme emotional distress!

[mis]inheritance

Way to go. One trillion dollars ought to do it. http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

Gothamist_Cynic

It's good they didn't strip search her in that 6ft x 6ft cell. I hope she wins.

ides_of_march

Fire the schmuck who used the wrong paper.

TrippinJoJo

that lawsuit is "quite alot of overkill" $500K FOR WHAT?? missing out on salad and getting drunk at a lame bar in LES?

BOLLOCKS.

But MTA/LIRR fails too. That is a given

TKaisen

An "honest mistake" is making her pay for a ticket and refunding her money.

They elevated it from "honest mistake" when they called the NYPD in and she was threatened with arrest and processing and jail. Don't blame her for trying to pull down a quick $100k settlement, honestly. I would. So would you.

Stewart

You bet your ass I would sue.

CR

How about as a settlement she gets to drive the train for a couple of miles? Oh yeah, you have to be a middle-aged accountant with a tidy mustache from Commack to get that sort of treatment...