‘We have you on video’: NYC tourist’s phone dies at the worst possible moment. 2 hours later, NYPD allegedly has her facing arrest

A Washington State traveler said in a TikTok video that New York police stopped her and her husband at a subway gate about two hours after they arrived in the city. Maggie Goodeill, who posts as @maggiegoodeill, described flying in, riding New Jersey Transit to Penn Station with two large suitcases, and then running into trouble at the fare gates.

Goodeill said a rider taps a card and then gets one pass through the gate. She stated that her husband, Ian, tapped, pushed his luggage through, and then had to jump the gate because he could no longer walk through. She said she later handed him her bags and walked through herself. The pair then checked into their hotel and took a nap, she added.

Around noon, she said, they headed back down to ride to Canal Street. Goodeill stated they both tapped and went through, then she realized her phone battery was dead. She said they were staying in a hotel right above the station, so they ran upstairs for a portable charger. She added that she was not going to Canal Street without her phone.

Officers stop the pair after a second tap fails and an alarm sounds

Goodeill said each ride costs about $3 and that they expected to lose that fare when they tried to tap again. She stated the machine showed it was unable to process the payment. She said they looked toward a kiosk where a worker might have been, but no one was there, so they jumped the gate.

She described Ian jumping first as someone opened an emergency exit, and a loud alarm went off. She said Ian told her to jump while she struggled and got her foot stuck, and that he tried to lift her. She then looked up and saw two NYPD officers without a smile. One officer asked, she said, “What’s going on? We have you on video like jumping over the subway.”

Goodeill compared the gate to one a person would walk through at a fair. She said Ian did the talking and stayed respectful. She described one officer as really nice and the other as being from the Bronx, with a thick accent and no smile. She called the pair “stone cold killers” in the video.

Ian told the officers they had already paid, that her phone had died, that they had run back to the hotel, and that the second tap would not go through, she said. She added that she pointed to the empty kiosk. The officer she described as meaner asked if they were tourists. She said she answered “obviously,” and he replied, “obviously, obviously what?”

She said the accent made the exchange more intimidating and that she thought no one would steal a $3 subway ride after they had tried to pay. She stated that her husband, whom she called calm and always in control, pulled up Apple Pay showing they had paid about three minutes earlier. She said the officers had been standing close enough that it felt like they were about to be booked and put in handcuffs.

Once Ian showed the payment, she said the officers stepped away and told them not to jump the gate. Goodeill called the stop her first impression of New York City. She said she expected a softer reaction toward tourists, but the officer stayed stern and gave a warning gesture. The couple’s tense encounter with authority figures is one type of stressful situation, as a NY mom’s billing her husband for saying one word shows domestic friction can also escalate.

Viewers reacted to the video with mixed notes about New York and East Coast manners. One commenter said they would have wanted to go home after a stop like that. Another wrote, “I love NYC but it is definitely a different world.”

A third commenter posted, “Aww man welcome to NEW YORK.” Someone who said they were also from Washington described asking an officer for the nearest bathroom and being looked at as if they were a bother while the officer was standing and doing nothing. Such encounters with police can escalate quickly, as when an Atlanta woman says she was threatened with arrest while trying to make a turn.

Another commenter who identified as a lifelong Washington resident wrote, “As a lifelong Washington Resident I cannot handle the cold attitudes of East Coasters. Just be nice! I smile will not unalive you!”