The NYPD is putting the heat on churro sellers, subway acrobats, and other underground peddlers and panhandlers.
Cops arrested 89 vendors as of March 16, up from 49 during the same period last year — a spike of more than 80 percent, according to NYPD Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Fox.
It’s illegal to sell anything in the subway, from food to gadgets, without a license from the MTA.
“They are brazen enough to do it in front of you,” said a police source. “It’s gross. They’re in the subway, which is filthy, selling food no one knows how was made or produced.”
Police also locked up 256 panhandlers, a 232 percent increase from the 77 busts last year. They include subway acrobats who ask for money after leaping around cars, as well as people begging for coins at stations.
Felony crime, meanwhile, is down 7 percent in the subway.