So let’s get this straight: Master keys that could facilitate untold havoc throughout the city are being sold to the public online — and there’s nothing that can be done about it?
Moreover, city officials didn’t even realize such items are on sale — until two Post reporters actually bought a set?
Amazingly, that appears to be the case.
The Post reported Sunday that it had bought a set of five keys — routinely issued to city firefighters — on eBay for $150 from retired locksmith Daniel Ferraris.
The keys allow control of virtually every elevator in the city. They can open locked subway entrances, provide entry to many firehouses, unlock construction-site boxes that house other keys and allow access to streetlamps as well as circuit-breaker boxes in most large buildings.
Thus, a prescription for disaster.
And just the sort of opportunity that makes you wonder how terrorists — for whom New York remains Target No. 1 — haven’t caught on to it.
As far as is known, anyway.
As former NYPD and FDNY Commissioner Howard Safir said: “Just anyone having [these keys] is very dangerous.”
And though the seller claimed the items were obsolete, most of those bought by The Post worked just fine.
Such keys are standard issue to firefighters and electricians — none of whom, amazingly, are required to turn them in when they leave municipal employment.
Even more incredibly, it’s not against the law for Ferraris to sell them — or for anyone else to own them.
Yes, there are charges that can be brought — but obtaining a conviction is highly unlikely unless prosecutors can prove intent to commit a burglary.
Indeed, Ferraris said The Post’s story prompted a call from a city fire marshal who asked him to please stop selling the keys — after admitting it’s not illegal for him to do so.
Which is why city agencies say they’re now reviewing their policies.
And City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Peter Vallone Jr. says he’s introducing a bill to make possession or sale of such keys a crime.
But why did it take The Post’s exposé for officials to finally look into this?
Vallone admits that “this is not the first time I’ve heard of this type of situation.” And cops said a city EMT used his firemen’s key to disable elevators in a string of sexual assaults.
So the problem isn’t unknown.
Time to do something about it; Vallone’s bill would be a good start.