Kids as young as 11 are working as illegal vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge, peddling goods to tourists in a chaotic scene that has returned despite a prior crackdown.
Sergio, 11, told The Post on Monday that he earns between $100 and $300 daily, typically working eight-hour shifts four days a week, while his mother sells hats nearby. The boy, who said he emigrated from Ecuador with his family in 2021, was among at least three dozen unlicensed vendors who clogged the historic span that day.
Another boy, who claimed to be 12 years old, sold fruit for $5 apiece while left entirely alone. When asked about his mother’s whereabouts, he said she had gone to the bathroom, but he remained unsupervised as he conducted business.
Jennifer Thompson, 53, a tourist from Virginia, purchased two canvas bags for $10 from one of the young sellers. “It’s a bit awkward,” she said. “I kinda wish it was an adult, but I don’t know their circumstances.”
Her husband, Larry Thompson, 52, voiced similar concern. “I was wondering where their parents are at,” he said.
The illegal vendors — many of them immigrants — have plagued the Brooklyn Bridge for years. By 2023, the span had become so packed with peddlers that one frustrated local described it as a “disgusting, mile-long souvenir shop and flea market.”
The Post observed at least 42 illegal vendors on the bridge on Sunday, with merchandise spread across blankets. The scene included children of varying ages managing sales, with older kids left alone to handle transactions while adults sat beside children as young as 4 or 5.
The situation has drawn particular ire from licensed vendors, including military veterans struggling to operate legitimately. Sammy, a disabled veteran and licensed ice cream vendor who works near the bridge, said the city rarely enforces rules against the illegal operators. When police do issue tickets, he noted, the fines typically run $50 or less — a small fraction of what the vendors earn.
“Us being disabled veterans and having a license means nothing over there now because if I go over there, they’re going to kick me out,” he complained. “But they’re not kicking [the illegal vendors] out now.”
In the viral moment that preceded the current surge, former Mayor Eric Adams ordered a sweep in 2024 that temporarily booted the vendors from the bridge. The unsightly outdoor market has since returned and been left to flourish under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with no comparable enforcement effort underway.
One stunned tourist, encountering the scene Monday, put it bluntly: “They are everywhere.”