Do you want to get bilked by a snowman?
The cadre of costumed creeps known for panhandling and manhandling in Times Square has migrated east for the winter, invading Rockefeller Center to prey on tourists gawking at its famed Christmas tree.
A motley menagerie including The Grinch, Cookie Monster Olaf the snowman from “Frozen” has descended on the tree since its lighting last week, hitting up onlookers to pose for photos, then guilting or strong-arming “tips” out of them.
The characters were locked over the weekend in a game of cat-and-mouse with Rockefeller Center security, camping under the tree until they were kicked off the plaza, only to return a few hours later.
“I start on Times Square, they’re better here,” said one woman done up as Anna from “Frozen,” referring to tips.
But before divulging much more, Anna lost her cool and demanded that a Post reporter take a photo with her and fork over a tip.
When the scribe took out a $20 bill for Anna to break, a sticky-fingered Olaf snatched the cash and disappeared into the Friday-night crush — which included several other Olafs.
Tourists on Sunday described having their holiday spirits dampened by similar run-ins with the mangy menaces.
“The pictures came out bad and we couldn’t even get our money back,” said Ava Novais, 17, who was in town from Connecticut with friends when they were accosted by “Frozen” furballs.
Pal Maria Valinsky, 17, described how the creeps encircled them while issuing greedy demands worthy of the naughty list.
“They kept telling us, ‘more, more,’ and they were surrounding us,” said Valinsky.
One out-of-towner described how a “Frozen” character tried to sell him a tale of woe when he asked for directions and they snapped a photo with his wife.
“They then asked for a tip and I said, ‘I was just asking for directions, I didn’t want a picture,’” said the Memphis, Tennessee, man, who declined to give his name. “She tried to tell me she’s pregnant. I’m like, ‘OK, I didn’t impregnate her.’”
Visitors also complained of being wrapped in unsolicited touching — behavior that reignited the city’s long-running battle with the ubiquitous pests back in September, when a Times Square Elmo was charged with groping a 14-year-old girl.
A study found the characters touch an average of 24 people an hour without consent.
The hairy horde’s invasion comes amid a city push to make Rockefeller Center more pedestrian-friendly, expanding no-car zones around the tree to historically large bounds this year.
Since 2016, the characters have been relegated to “designated activity zones” while in Times Square, but the NYPD did not respond to a request for comment clarifying the laws outside of the Crossroads of the World.
Source: Read Full Article