Token sucking

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Token sucking is a crime involving the theft of subway tokens. Token suckers would jam the coin slots on subway turnstiles and wait for would-be passengers to insert their tokens. When they discovered that the turnstile was broken, they would leave, with the token still stuck in the coin slot. The token sucker would then emerge, place his mouth on the coin slot, and suck the token out.

The New York City Subway system, which used tokens prior to the conversion to plastic MetroCards (tokens were phased out entirely in 2003), had a number of token suckers. In 2003, the New York Times published a story on the crime's obsolescence with the phase-out of tokens.

[edit] References

• The New York Times on token sucking