New York Fraudster Takes Tourist For $200 Ride on Free Staten Island Ferry

[From article]
Dopey tourists are paying top dollar to bogus vendors for “tickets” to the Staten Island Ferry — which has been free for 18 years, The Post has learned.
One clueless pair shelled out $400 for a round-trip journey to the city’s southernmost borough, sources said.
“They’re targeting people who are tourists, because they just don’t know better,” said a source with the city’s Parks Enforcement Patrol.
Career con Gregory Reddick, 54, hooked the big fish on Wednesday while wearing a snappy “Authorized Ticket Agent” jacket near the South Street Seaport, officials said.

[. . .]

Gregory Reddick

Joseph chased Reddick to The Battery, where he and a half-dozen fellow officers surrounded the 200-pound suspect, subduing him with the help of pepper spray, the complaint says.
He allegedly still had the $400 on him, but the two tourists were already gone and the cash could not be returned, a source said.
Reddick’s rap sheet dates to his early teens and includes six felony convictions, other law-enforcement sources said.
He has at least five aliases, six Social Security numbers and seven dates of birth — and has spent at least nine years in prison for burglary and credit-card fraud, sources added.

http://nypost.com/2015/05/30/tourists-tricked-into-paying-200-for-free-staten-island-ferry-ride/

Tourists tricked into paying $200 for free Staten Island Ferry ride

By Rich Calder
New York Post
May 30, 2015 | 3:00am