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Comment by ilamont | Hacker News Reader

Skimming from public transit is an old trick.

There was case like this in Boston about 15 years ago that came to light as they were switching away from tokens to Charlie Cards. It was an MBTA mechanic. IIRC he was caught because it looked strange that someone kept showing up with bags of tokens to exchange for cash at one of the stations.

Even with the new card system, someone figured out a scheme to steal:

https://www.universalhub.com/2011/mbta-revere-man-made-sold-...

And when I was a kid there was a big parking meter scandal in which most of the collectors were implicated after a resident saw two of them skimming. Loved this quote from the investigator:

''The meters in Boston are the oldest I've ever seen,'' Mr. Vitagliano said. ''In some cases, it is actually easier to take a quarter out of one of our meters than to put a quarter in. I mean that.''

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/08/us/boston-meter-collector...

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In Boston in the '90s and early 2000s, an out of order parking meter meant you could park for free. There was a sensor in the coin slot to detect jams which would in turn put the meter out of order. If you ripped off the flip up lid from a Dunkin Donuts coffee cup and inserted it into and removed it from the coin slot, the meter would go out of order. It was almost as if that's what the Dunkin engineers designed it for. It worked every time.

Many a cold morning in Boston my father would prefer to pay the $1 for his Dunkin coffee than pay for parking as we ran errands in the city. A trail of disabled meters laid in our wake. Not the best lesson for 8 year old me but a funny memory nonetheless. RIP Dad.

My father used to do this too in Boston, but instead by jamming the slot with some kind of paper past the point of removing it. Extra points for using the orange colored envelope you got with your last parking ticket. Definitely was not a good lesson for a similarly aged me.

> My father used to do this too in Boston, but instead by jamming the slot with some kind of paper past the point of removing it

This is why the Dunkin flip up lid was such a technological innovation: my dad was worried that he’d get reported by a meter maid if they continuously found his junker purple Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight (out of place in the Back Bay) in front of meters with obvious and visible paper jams. The Dunkin lid did just enough to permanently trip the jam sensor while also being removable and reusable. It gave you just enough plausible deniability. For a while there he just kept one in his center console instead of bothering with change machines.

>Extra points for using the orange colored envelope you got with your last parking ticket

Nothing worse than seeing that neon orange envelope under your wiper blade from afar when returning to your car. Those meter maids were like ninjas.

I’d argue that it is a very good lesson for that age …

I was visiting my cousin in Seattle, I must have been 15. Everyone else went in while he “fixed the meter” I hung back and watched. He sat on the curb filing a penny on the concrete. Apparently if you file it so it fits in the dime slot the rough edge would catch and you could just keep spinning the dial to add the max time to the meter. Of course don’t choose one of the old copper ones or you’ll be there all night.

The repair shops must have hated that. Imagine having to take apart meter after meter to remove the stuck penny.

That’s nothing, in Canada we had a guy steal half point (200g) gold nuggets… internally… from the Mint. Only got caught when he deposited lots of big cheques from a gold coin shop at his bank and they learned he worked at the Mint.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/royal-canadian-mint-emp...

In 2015, this fellow was making $55k/yr, contrast to the guy in the article making $31k in 1981.

The 38k/year was the most striking part of the article. According to a (US) inflation calculator that would be 130k today https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ which seems very good for an apparently entry level job.

I think that's largely because wages haven't really kept pace with inflation.

Haven't really = not at all, I have no idea where I'd be if I wasn't working in the comparatively highly paid tech industry. I count myself as very lucky.

I wonder if the fellow had to be a licensed electrician for that job. It would explain a lot, especially in Alberta where they were in high demand throughout the 70s to work the oil patch.

It's a Canadian dollar, so about 20% less or so than USD at that time.

Currency exchange rate is pretty similar now which suggests similar inflation rates to both.

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/nyregion/tunnel-vision-ki...

Token sucking - described by police as the most disgusting non-violent crime committed on the NYC subway.

I recall seeing that happen on one occasion and thinking, you've earned it.

https://archive.ph/CtpVe

For years San Francisco had a major problem with city employees and contractors stealing the money from the meters.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/robbed-blind-parking-cza...

Amsterdam too.. It was a huge problem.

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