Cops are looking for a group of vandals who took a drill to a bank of OMNY readers at a Brooklyn subway station, apparently as a political protest.<\/p>\n
The subway sabotage took place some time before 11:30 a.m. last Wednesday, cops said, when a transit worker discovered seven mangled OMNY readers at the Church Ave. station of the B and Q trains in Flatbush.<\/p>\n
A video posted to X Sunday morning<\/a> purports to show the incident. A person clad in all black and wearing a balaclava can be seen spray-painting the station\u2019s security cameras while standing on a folding chair.<\/p>\n The video then shows a plaid-clad, masked vandal taking a drill and a center-punch to the glass screen of each OMNY reader.<\/p>\n The pair then spread leaflets at the scene.<\/p>\n One read, \u201cYou are being watched,\u201d and noted that the fare payment system may collect personal information from straphangers like their name, age and photograph.<\/p>\n The leaflets went on to encourage riders to jump the turnstiles or use a cash-bought OMNY card, before declaring, \u201cLive free, ride free, f**k the NYPD\u201d<\/p>\n A second leaflet calls Cubic \u2014 the San Diego transit and defense firm that runs the OMNY system and developed its predecessor, MetroCard \u2014 a \u201cwar profiteer,\u201d saying the firm does business with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n An MTA spokesman told the Daily News that the damaged readers were quickly replaced.<\/p>\n The seven broken readers cost a total of $18,851, according to the NYPD.<\/p>\n The OMNY system \u2014 which allows riders to pay for their subway or bus fare using a smartphone, smart-watch, or tap-to-pay bank card \u2014 fully replaced the MetroCard late last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n