Liberty Island ferry is besieged with fake ticket sellers.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this Sunday morning is Mike Booke. He’s a chief operating officer of the Hornblower ferries that go to Ellis Island to go to the Statue of Liberty, and he’s got a problem. Any gang can’t get anybody in the city to help. Mike, tell us your problems.

0:20 Speaker 2 With the ferries, Thanks, Jean. So this originally started after Sandy, when you could not go to the statue, but now a post pandemic eight years later, we’re back at it with these illegal vendors. These are not ticket resellers. They are not the Mango and the Watch people. These are people who are pretending to sell tickets to the Statue

0:44 of Liberty for departure points well away from the battery up at pre seventy eight on the Hudson River by the Manhattan Bridge on the East River. So they basically are fraudulently representing that you can buy a ticket from them.

1:01 And there’s sixty or seventy of them around the sidewalk perimeter of the park telling people that our venue is closed, that the statue is overbooked, that there’s a long wait. All lies that you can imagine, and worse than that, people who are already holding a ticket for our boat are told they must show their ticket to these primarily

1:22 X cons about sixty percent of them are ex convicts by their own estimation, to enter a public park in New York City. So city police have been slow to act the administrations and slow to assist. You know, they’ve thrown band aids at it. But we pay a ten percent of our gross receipts fee the city parks for

1:46 the privilege to sell the ticket and depart from the battery. We’re the only ones that pay that fee, and we’re the only ones. They can take you to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

1:57 Speaker 1 And you can’t get anybody and the NYPD. Would it take a special division of the NYPD to help versus the ordinary patrolman that shows up when you’re downline one one?

2:11 Speaker 2 Well, and that in lies the problem. We’ve got this special situation where got very aggressive. It’s not going to take one policeman against sixty or seventy and they’ll move around to avoid the police. First Precinct has been helpful off and on through various administrations. But you know, this quality of life crime, So what.

2:33 Speaker 1 Can does the consumer do. What can consumer do? But you know, it’s not necessarily the consumer in New York. There’s mostly tourists that get screwed on this situation.

2:45 Speaker 2 Absolutely, and particularly if English is their second language, they’re a visitor from South America or Europe. It’s difficult for them because they’re you know, if they haven’t gone online, which is the primary way that we sell our tickets.

3:00 Two percent of our tickets are pre sold through our website Statue Cruise at SATU Citycruises dot com. And there’s a telephone number and people can buy the ticket at Castle Clinton at Battery Park, but if they listen to these hawkers at the brimmer of the park, uh, they’re told all sorts of stories. So the best that the

3:23 visitor can do or local who’s going to the statue is to pre buy the ticket, make a reservation or not make a reservation, but buy a ticket online, have it on your phone through our code, and you don’t have to talk to any of these people. But even with that, Johnny, they’re such an intimidating force. They’re not

3:44 exactly eagle scouts, and they the modus operendi is like a drug street peddler would do. They have runners who intercept the tourists, then they take the tourists to the ticket seller who takes their credit card information, and then they deliver them to a bus to a faraway location for a second class, non premium service at a much

4:11 higher price than we charge. And they don’t get to the Statue of Liberty, which was their target when they left their hotel or home that morning.

4:21 Speaker 1 Well, we got to solve that problem. And thank you for coming on this Sunday morning, and let’s see what comes out of it. We’ve got a million people listening, so hopefully the right people are listening to this. And thank you for doing what you’re doing with Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. And I’ll be visiting for

4:43 more often. Thank you so much.

4:45 Speaker 2 Thank you, John, appreciate your time.