As the MTA gears up to raise fares, two stories about straphangers’ attempts at outsmarting the swipe have made the news this week.
First up is a tale of forgery. Three and a half years ago, police arrested Jonathan Mattocks after watching him pick up discarded MetroCards, bend them and swipe on through. A past transit-offender, Mattocks was convicted of a felony and sentenced to jail time. That’s where his appeal comes in. Per Sewell Chan:
On appeal, his defense lawyers made a novel argument. They conceded that Mr. Mattocks broke the law, but said that he should have been charged with a misdemeanor, unauthorized sale of transportation services, rather than forgery.
Bending a MetroCard does not make it “falsely altered” — as the law defines forgery — “because the damage does not create value on a worthless card, it merely prevents the turnstile computer from determining that the card has no value,” the defense lawyers maintained, according to a summary of their arguments in a court ruling issued on Thursday.
In that ruling, the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, rejected that logic and upheld Mr. Mattocks’s conviction for forgery.
Amusingly enough, Chan also notes that the decision contains detailed instructions in how to perpetuate a MetroCard forgery. “The judge,” he writes, “devoted her first section to explaining the coding of the cards, how they are read, and how, in essence, to foil the system.” That little tidbit of information certainly won’t help the MTA combat what they say are over 250,000 annual instances of MetroCard fraud.
Mattock, by the way, had already served his two-year prison sentence while awaiting the outcome of his appeal.
In other fare-jumping news, two Daily News reporters stationed themselves near an emergency exit and counted the number of fare-jumpers entering through what should be a locked exit. At two stations, the reporters watched numerous straphangers enter through the open doors .When the reporters confronted the station clerks about the issue, the clerk quickly alarmed the door and alleged it had been armed the entire time.
One fare-beater even had the audacity to defend his actions: “Since when is walking through an open door breaking the law? If that clerk doesn’t care enough to close the door, why shouldn’t I go through?”
8 comments
I agree that bending the card does NOT constitute forgery. Yet another judge not upholding the law but interpreting it to his own interests.
Really? So you would encourage people to go around bending fare cards and defrauding the system?
If it’s not a forgery then what is it?
I didn’t say I encourage farebeating. It is NOT a forgery it is the same charge as jumping the turnstile.
Defrauding the system is how all cops get free metrocards that most give to there wives.
…At least this involves some ingenuity. Where are the cops when all the lurkers dash for the emergency exit when I come home from work with my suitcase?
1. “Forgery” or not, I think the punishment is way too excessive for what is essentially a $2 theft.
2. 99 times out of 100, people use the emergency exit because someone is too lazy to walk four steps farther to the turnstile. That said, it’s sure convenient but as long as cops are arresting people who use them, there is no way in hell I’m going to pass through one. As “emergency” exits, they’re totally useless and someone should have figured out that this was going to happen before they wasted all that money on the alarms.
I never really got why they didn’t put an electronic lock on the emergency exits…and in case of emergency or a bulky item, the agent (of course, in these days, if there’s an agent at all) would unlock the door.
What could possibly go wrong…?
Check it out. Its all a big load of BULL…. Arresting people who bend cards is all $$$ for the city. The MTA said it them selves 250,000 cases a year… Think about how much money the city makes if they catch just 10% of them doing that. Forgery? HA… If someone was clever enough to make there own card and beat the computer that way.. I would call it forgery. Lets face it, the people who run The MTA shouldnt even be aloud to run a toy train set, never mind The MTA.