What if the Turtles had to pay rent for living in the sewer?

[CyberCubed]

Somehow the Turtles always find some portion of the sewer that has seemingly been abandoned to have their lair in. Which doesn't make sense if you lived in NYC, eventually every portion of the sewer would be covered by city workers or subway workers looking to expand or renovate portions of the sewer for new subway tracks or phone lines or whatever.

What if the Turtles had to pay rent? What would they do?

[neatoman]

Laws really only apply to human beings, the turtles are clearly not human.

[DragonSoul]

I assume that since Master Splinter is a mutant rat that he would have dug a den below the sewer architecture. Then he would construct the lair's entrance to conceal nicely into the surrounding architecture in order to avoid detection. Of course if you want to destroy the the lore of the TMNT universe then I guess they still wouldn't pay rent because they would be captured by the Earth Protection Force (EPF).

[ABrown]

How are the turtles paying for their food? How are they paying for anything?

[IndigoErth]

I dunno about rent, but the city sure might want to send them an overdue electric bill once they figured out where that extra unaccounted for usage was found out. lol

[mrmaczaps]

Laws really only apply to human beings, the turtles are clearly not human.

Laws really only apply to the law abiding, human or otherwise.

[Icebot]

How are the turtles paying for their food? How are they paying for anything?

They do have money, Michaelangelo was short only by a quarter when he tried to buy something in The Maltese Hampster, also in another episode they show their money in their turtle bank when Leonardo yells at them for putting a tomato in it.

When Michaelangelo tried to get a job in Pizza By The Shred, Leonardo told him being a ninja turtle is a full time job so maybe that’s how they make money?

[triplexxx]

Well like I said in another thread, I believe the "4th wall" is where they get most of their money, recycling and jobs (which they are shown on rare occasion, like Pizza By The Shred, 2k7, etc. to have) being secondary sources. Like was pointed out, being a ninja turtle is a full-time job. As for electricity, the city may simply dismiss it as runoff, which in large metropolitan areas, there's sure to be and probably impossible to detect. Seeing as how they don't even have IDs and are not documented births in any country, they are technically "illegal aliens", so I'd say deportation is a much higher concern than rent. Also, any city/subway workers that try to move in on their territory have ended up spooked away, or in many cases caught doing something illegal.

[The Great Saiyaman]

The title of this thread reminds me of a political comic strip from the eighties, our protagonist is a guy who got very down on his luck and is basically a homeless Bum.

In this particular gag he's seen lying in the gutter when a man in a trench coat comes walking up.

Man: Say have you payed your overdue rent yet?
Bum: Rent, what are you talking about, what rent?
Man: The rent for use of the gutter of course!
Bum: "The rent for the use of the gutter?!" what kind of Mob activity is this, who's behind all of this?
A guy in a four piece suit arrives on the scene smoking a cigar
Guy: The Gutfather

[The Great Saiyaman]

How are the turtles paying for their food? How are they paying for anything?

Perhaps through Hamato Yohsi's well fare account.

[IndigoErth]

Well like I said in another thread, I believe the "4th wall" is where they get most of their money
So royalty checks? :D

[Andrew NDB]

Might as well ask, "How do they participate in society/mankind?"

They don't. They aren't a part of it.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Pretty sure they just find lost change and the occasional bill or two on the rare occasions they actually need to use money. As for rent or whatnot- why WOULD they? The sewers and subways are full of squatters and bums in most major cities, often in areas that are no longer used, of which there are more than one might think. The lair from SotO/TMNT3, for instance, was actually the City Hall subway station, which has been unused for subway traffic for decades, though it is still sometimes open for tours due to its amazing architecture. And there is a train abandoned under NYC that was once used to transport the President (Roosevelt, iirc) around beneath the city during visits. It's still sitting in its final resting place at the end of the line it was used on.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

The turtles are teenagers, and if they were part of society, they would have to go to school. Thankfully, they aren't part of any society.

[mrmaczaps]

Pretty sure they just find lost change and the occasional bill or two on the rare occasions they actually need to use money. As for rent or whatnot- why WOULD they? The sewers and subways are full of squatters and bums in most major cities, often in areas that are no longer used, of which there are more than one might think. The lair from SotO/TMNT3, for instance, was actually the City Hall subway station, which has been unused for subway traffic for decades, though it is still sometimes open for tours due to its amazing architecture. And there is a train abandoned under NYC that was once used to transport the President (Roosevelt, iirc) around beneath the city during visits. It's still sitting in its final resting place at the end of the line it was used on.

What if when they kick the stuffing out of the Foot, they also steal their money but just enough for buying pizza?

[Rabbit Kraken Zeo]

Somehow the Turtles always find some portion of the sewer that has seemingly been abandoned to have their lair in. Which doesn't make sense if you lived in NYC, eventually every portion of the sewer would be covered by city workers or subway workers looking to expand or renovate portions of the sewer for new subway tracks or phone lines or whatever.

What if the Turtles had to pay rent? What would they do?

I would say they'd get "jobs" to pay the rent as Mikey once did in an episode where he actually delivered pizza while wearing a human mask and later ended up working for shredder---so with that in mind----they could "deliver pizza" ;)

[Prowler]

Whom would they pay the rent to? Who'd be the mysterious landlord of the sewers? It can be the city hall, since they'd never allow the Turtles to freely live in the sewers if they knew where exactly their lair was.

So that leaves... The Rat King? But wouldn't that make the Turtles subservient to him? "Pay me a monthly tax and I won't kick you out of my sewers"?