Statue City Cruises contends 2,000 to 3,000 people every day are getting duped by brazen con artists into buying unauthorized tickets for tours to Lady Liberty.
The tricksters cavalierly operate out of Battery Park, prompting the company to ask the city Parks Department for help.
But in response, the city told the ferry operator to pay for additional security itself, according to emails reviewed by The Post.
Mike Burke, the company’s COO, called the city response “outrageous,” adding it “quite frankly feels like extortion, an affront to the symbol of freedom, Lady Liberty herself.
“We wonder whether this bold ask will be part of a new city policy to charge the business community for the cost of public safety in a city park,” he said.
The company pays the National Parks Service $7 million a year for exclusive rights to provide Liberty Island and Ellis Island tours, with ferries leaving from both Battery Park and Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
Since the city gets a cut of the ferry operator’s concessions, it’s losing more than $2.3 million annually by not enforcing vending rules in Battery Park, estimated Burke.
The company believes roughly 80 scammers a day illegally operated out of Battery Park on average this summer. Many of them typically claim Liberty Island is closed and try selling tickets to unsuspecting tourists for boat or bus tours merely overlooking Lady Liberty from a distance.
The scams are more than a decade old and have even duped celebrities.
Actor Alec Baldwin went on a social-media tirade in 2019 after he and wife Hilaria were scammed into purchasing $40 bogus tickets to see the Statue of Liberty.
Some of the shameless hucksters in the past have also scammed people to pay entry fees into Battery Park, or as The Post reported in 2015, shell out $200 for a free ride on the Staten Island ferry.
Statue City Cruises said ridership to Liberty Island from Liberty State Park is up this year compared to last year and attributes declining ridership from Battery Park to the scammers.
The Parks Department said in a statement it’s peace officers patrol Battery Park regularly and conduct “joint details” with NYPD cops “to ensure” all “rules are observed and enforced.” When asked about Burke’s “extortion” claim, the agency insisted “there’s no new policy around enforcement” and that it had only “advised the concessionaire of additional options.”
Statue City Cruises said ridership to Liberty Island from Liberty State Park is up this year compared to last year and attributes declining ridership from Battery Park to the scammers.
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