Anyone with grand plans to attain immortality by scratching their name into a subway door window should be advised: carving glass with a knife is, indeed, vandalism, as one very uninformed vandal learned last night:
The video shows a blonde woman in a green sweatshirt digging deep into the window of a subway car—it's hard to make out what exactly she's scratching into the class, but a close examination of the video frames suggest it might be "RICK," or "RACK," or perhaps an especially calligraphic "DICK." We reached out to the guy who uploaded the video, but he wasn't sure, either. When he informs her that what she's doing is vandalism, she appears deeply, genuinely confused:
VIDEOGRAPHER: You know that's vandalism, right?
VANDAL: I thought I was just scratching. Isn't vandalism only paint? [...] I thought it was only paint. Like, spray-paint.
VIDEOGRAPHER: So you're scratching shit on windows here and you think it's not vandalism?
VANDAL: I don't know what to say. I thought it was just paint.
It's unclear what she thought she was doing. Trying out performance art? Practicing her Snapchat doodling game? Making a grocery list? As far as subway confrontations go, though, this one was pretty tame. But it does seem to have been sufficiently shaming: the uploader said that she immediately stopped scratching, and got off at the next stop.
"I think it's possible she thought I was a cop or something," he told Gothamist.
In case there's any confusion, "scratchitti," as this form of window-etching is called, is indeed vandalism—and it's of the more frustrating variety, costing the MTA more than $3 million each year. According to the MTA, it can land you a $100 fine and a court summons, even if it's not "just paint."
