Aug 14, 2009 7:28 pm US/Eastern
LIRR Passenger Held For Hours In Fake Ticket Snafu
Lara Tepper Taken Into Custody, Kept In Tiny Cell By MTA Police Over 'Forgery' That Turned Out To Be Real
By KATHRYN BROWN, CBS 2 HD News
HICKSVILLE, N.Y. (CBS) ―
A Nassau County woman is suing the Long Island Rail Road and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for $500,000 after she was detained for hours over a ticket that was supposedly fake.
Well, the ticket was real and the LIRR has apologized, but Lara Tepper wants them to own up to what they put her through – and to pay for it.
Tepper bought her latest LIRR ticket just like always – at the window of the Hicksville station.
But when she boarded the train last Wednesday, the conductor punching tickets told her it was a fake.
"Automatically, I said, 'No it's not, I bought it from the office,'" Tepper said.
But after several conductors looked it over, Tepper was turned over to the MTA Police, who detained her in a holding cell for hours while they checked out her story.
"Which was like 6-by-6, really, really tiny," Tepper said. "There were heat lamps – it was really hot."
Tepper said police took her jewelry, phone, money – even her belt and shoes.
"They treated me like I was a criminal," she said.
As it turned out, Tepper wasn't lying, and the conductor had been mistaken. When MTA Police checked with Hicksville hours later, they learned that the station was using a roll of outdated stock paper to print tickets.
"It's just overkill, it's inexperience, it's inexcusable," Tepper's attorney, James Sawyer, said.
It's a rider's nightmare – so what's to stop it from happening again?
CBS 2 HD went to the MTA and the LIRR demanding answers. The LIRR wouldn't let CBS 2 HD employees in, or go on camera.
Instead, they issued a statement: "We regret the unfortunate incident that led to the detention of Ms. Tepper. As soon as it was determined that her ticket was not a forgery, she was released."
"I think that's insane," Plainview resident Deborah Friedman said. "I just assume, when I get a ticket, it's the correct paper and the correct ticket."
Riders boarding the train at the Hicksville Station are now looking at their tickets a little more closely. However, there were still a number of riders holding outdated tickets without the hologram on the back.
The MTA has issued a directive to staff that, while old paper stock is rare, it is still in use and perfectly valid.
Even if you find your ticket is printed on old paper, the MTA said it is still valid, and its employees are responsible for knowing that.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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