Vandals hit NYC subway OMNY readers in apparent political protest

Evan Simko-Bednarski and Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News on Oct 19, 2026

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NEW YORK — Cops are looking for a group of vandals who took a drill to a bank of One Metro New York, or OMNY, readers at a Brooklyn subway station, apparently as a political protest.

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.

A video posted to X Sunday morning purports to show the incident. A person clad in all black and wearing a balaclava can be seen spray-painting the station’s security cameras while standing on a folding chair.

The video then shows a plaid-clad, masked vandal taking a drill and a center-punch to the glass screen of each OMNY reader.

The pair then spread leaflets at the scene.

One read, “You are being watched,” and noted that the fare payment system may collect personal information from straphangers like their name, age and photograph.

The leaflets went on to encourage riders to jump the turnstiles or use a cash-bought OMNY card, before declaring, “Live free, ride free, f**k the NYPD”

A second leaflet calls Cubic — the San Diego transit and defense firm that runs the OMNY system and developed its predecessor, MetroCard — a “war profiteer,” saying the firm does business with the Israeli military.

An MTA spokesman told the Daily News that the damaged readers were quickly replaced.

The seven broken readers cost a total of $18,851, according to the NYPD.

The OMNY system — which allows riders to pay for their subway or bus fare using a smartphone, smart-watch, or tap-to-pay bank card — fully replaced the MetroCard late last year.

The OMNY system’s privacy policy acknowledges that identifying information, including one’s photograph, is “Personal Information you may provide to us through your access or use of the OMNY Services” — though it does not go into further detail.

Watchdog groups have raised questions about OMNY’s privacy policy in the past, with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project raising questions about “its ability to track users once they enter the system, and the possibility for it to be misused by government agencies to surveil individuals,” in a 2019 paper.

Police told the Daily News that last week’s destruction of a Brooklyn fare array remains under investigation, and that no arrests have yet been made.

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