Police from the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills and Transit District 20 are looking for a vandal who damaged three MTA OMNI “Tap and Go” machines at the 71st Avenue subway station on the Queens Boulevard line early Wednesday morning.
The suspect allegedly used a metal object to damage the OMNY machines at around 12:45 a.m. on March 6 before running off in an unknown direction, police said.
“Customers love to tap and go to get to their destination so intentionally vandalizing turnstile readers is not only stupid and illegal, but it also inconveniences riders and results in thousands of dollars in unnecessary cost to taxpayers,” MTA Spokesperson Joana Flores said.
The NYPD released a surveillance image of the suspect in the criminal mischief investigation and described him as having black hair and a beard. He was wearing a dark winter jacket.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.