MetroCard machine (Angel Chevrestt)
MetroCard mayhem has hit the MTA.
Vandals and swipe-selling scammers are increasingly wreaking havoc with subway MetroCard machines, and the criminals — some of whom are gang members — have become more menacing, according to MTA statistics and transit workers.
A mob recently confronted Brooklyn transit workers and threatened to “slice them up,” union sources said.
“It’s like the Thunderdome in some stations,” one worker said.
“Some are Crips, and some are Bloods,” said one worker, describing the situation at the Utica Avenue stations along the A, C and 3 lines in Brooklyn.
“I fear for the riding public. It’s dangerous.”
Swipers, as the hustlers are called, commonly jam the bill slot in MetroCard machines to force riders to buy a “swipe” to get past the turnstile.
They charge anywhere from $1 to $2. The fare is $2.50.
They exploit flaws in discarded cards that allow someone to get through after repeatedly swiping it, or they charge people to go through a service gate, transit workers said.
At the Fordham Road D station in The Bronx yesterday, The Post found several busted MetroCard machines unable to accept bills — and swipers more than willing to help out.
“I’ll let you in. Give me $2. Come on,” one man muttered.
According to the NYPD, the number of “swiper” arrests in recent months has doubled. Cops nabbed 148 swipers in January — twice the 74 they grabbed in December 2010.
Meanwhile, MetroCard machines are being vandalized at a furious clip.
In Brooklyn, vandals at the Utica Avenue station that serves the 3 and 4 trains broke machines 198 times in December alone — second only to Nostrand Avenue, where vandals took out 228 Metrocard machines, according to MTA data requested by The Post.
“Addressing the problem of vandals and swipers in the system is one of the areas where we work very closely with the NYPD,” said MTA spokesman Charles Seaton.
The MTA didn’t provide annual figures on vandalism damage, but maintenance logs from last April show incidents were up 26 percent from the prior year. There were 7,091 vandalism reports in April 2010 compared with 5,620 in April 2009.
Additional reporting by Douglas Montero