(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast 44, released on September 1, 2026.)
My wife Mary Jane and I recently spent five days in NYC with my cousin Michelle and her family.
One of the museums that we visited while there was the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, which is housed on two levels of a former subway station. While I wouldn’t put the museum in the “must-see” category, I would highly recommend visiting it, should you have the time.
In addition to a large number of vintage railway cars, they do have an exhibit showing the various types of turnstiles that have been used to make sure that only those who pay ride the rails.
Of course, even to this day, there are those who either jump the turnstile or figure out some other way to avoid paying the fare. And over the years, I have read of the many ways of doing this, but none were as unique – and disgusting – as the method described in an article printed in the February 7, 1983, edition of The New York Times.
It was the headline that caught my attention: “Youths Stealing Subway Tokens by Sucking on Turnstile Slots.”
Hugh A. Dunne, a special assistant to then Transit Authority President John D. Simpson, explained how this worked:
A patron would walk up to the turnstile and drop their token in, and “Before they can pass through, the kids quickly come with their mouths and suck it right up. All of a sudden, you’ve got no token.”
He explained that in most cases, the patron would tell a token clerk what happened, who would kindly let the victim pass through the gate at no charge.
Dunne strongly advised the public against sucking the tokens. “It is unhealthy and illegal, and you will get caught.” He added, “I frankly couldn’t think of anything more downright unhealthy.”
It was noted in the article that a token clerk at the 103rd Street and Broadway station came up with a clever way to stop the token sucking. The clerk sprinkled chili powder into the token slots. But Dunne explained how that idea backfired: “The kids came back with buckets of water, threw the water on the turnstiles, and then threw the rest at the token clerk.”
They did catch someone at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle station. In that case, a policeman monitoring the security cameras there had noticed a youngster repeatedly returning to the turnstile and putting his mouth over the coin slot. As a result, an officer was dispatched and arrested the youth.
The penalty for stealing tokens from a turnstile was punishable by a maximum of one year in prison and a $1,000 (~$3,250 today) fine. The problem was that these were youthful offenders, so they were typically released with nothing more than a warning not to do it again.
Hillel J. Valentine, a deputy inspector for the Transit Authority Police Department, estimated that “Some kids are making $50 to $100 a day sucking tokens.” (Roughly $165 – $335 today.)
Dunne believed that Valentine’s estimate was on the high side, and noted, “I may hear one or two calls about it a day on the police radio. But it is not one of our great revenue problems. A far bigger problem is people walking through the slam gates.”
He added that it was nearly impossible to catch the thieves. “It is another form of vandalism against the system, but I don’t know how we can stop it unless we have a patrolman at every turnstile.”
