(
)
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said he’d try to plug the legal loophole allowing anyone to buy keys to sensitive city locations — even as officials said they have no idea how many keys are out there.
Bloomberg directed Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano to address the glaring security breach in the wake of a Post story about a retired locksmith selling the all-access keys on eBay, no questions asked.
“We talked to the guy doing it,” Bloomberg said. “He said he would stop.”
The mayor said the glut of “master” keys — which allow access to construction sites such as the World Trade Center, as well as subway gates and control panels for high-rise elevators — is “a clear problem.”
He added the city is fortunate that no terrorist so far has taken advantage of the huge security breach.
“Are there abuses? Yes,” Bloomberg said. “Is it dangerous? Yes. Has it led to anything terrible so far? No. And we hope it won’t.”
The FDNY won’t take action until it conducts “a complete review of our key policy,” said spokesman Jim Long.
“We’re gathering as much information as we can before we address it with a policy,” said another spokesman, Frank Gribbon.
He said it’s likely the FDNY would establish rules for the return of the keys when firefighters leave or retire, just as it does for other equipment.
But some top officials told The Post there may be too many variables to pinpoint the number of keys on the street.
They said some usable keys go back 40 years, and were also issued to electricians and elevator mechanics. It’s nearly impossible to tell how many of them have been duplicated.
There is no law requiring authorized users to turn in their keys when they leave.
The result has been a city saturated with so many keys that collectors like Daniel Ferraris (above), a retired locksmith, has more than he knows what to do with. So he sells them on the Internet.
Ferraris sold The Post five keys to the city’s electrical panels, elevator controls, traffic-light relays, subway entrances and some firehouses.
The bargain price: $150.
“The truth of the matter is every firefighter has to have a key, so there’s 11,000 keys and there’s turnover,” Bloomberg said. “It’s probably not practical to totally stop anybody from ever giving a key to somebody else. But we’re certainly going to try it.’’
He suggested the problem would be extremely difficult to solve.
“We can have a database. Who’s going to put the data in? We can’t keep track of where the guns are. You have to have something practical,’’ he said.
“We can add another level of database or investigatory or prosecutorial people, all of which cost money. But Unless you get something that’s going to work, we don’t want to do it.”