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What Would YOU Do...?

soupcan Sep 20 2007 02:16 PM

This morning I'm on my regular MetroNorth commuter train from Connecticut into Grand Central Station, NYC. I'm sitting in the packed train reading my New York Times and I look up and see a guy standing in the vestibule (area between the doors) holding a small prayer book and some kind of prayer beads, silently praying but moving his lips. It caught my attention because its a very unfamiliar scene in that particular setting. He was about 6' tall, average build, black hair, clean shaven had on sunglasses and ear phones. He didn't appear to be any specific ethicity but actually could've been Caucasian or Hispanic or Middle Eastern or whatever. He was wearing a non-descript blue shirt and black pants. He had a backpack at his feet. After about 15-20 minutes he put the prayer book away and started reading a Wall Street Journal, all the while checking a PDA (or it could've been an iPod). There was another guy across from him who could have been Middle Eastern (or Hispanic) who was looking furtively around the train the entire time. They did not appear to be together but their eyes did meet a few times. When the train passed 125th street - which is the last stop before heading into the tunnel to go the rest of the way to GCT, the guy with the backpack left his position - but left the backpack - and walked down the length of the train car where he waited outside the bathroom door. The other guy kept looking from one end of the train to the other. By the time the train had reached GCT the backpack pack guy had returned to his spot. I thought about notifying the train conducter of my imagined 'suspicious behavior', you know 'If you see something, say something'. But what did I really see? A guy praying while reading what could have ben a Koran or a Bible. Holding what could've been Islamic prayer beads or Rosary beads. Leaving his bag to go to the bathroom and then coming back. The other guy was just another guy standing there. Long story short - I didn't do anything at the time although I thought about saying something to the conductor (what was I gonna say 'Um hey that guy's praying and I think he might be Islamic!) but I felt really freaked out the whole time. It bothered me all day. A guy innocently praying had me imaging all kinds of things. After thinking about it all day I called 1-800-NYC-SAFE and talked to a very nice woman who told me that I should've said something at the time. I feel very uneasy about the whole thing and a little disappointed in myself for thinking those thoughts and actually reporting them. I'm glad they didn't ask me my name.

Frayed Knot Sep 20 2007 02:26 PM

Hasn't happened to me yet but I've thought about that very scenario a number of times. Specifically it's the leaving the backpack for a time that's troublesome. I mean would you leave yours unattended while in the bathroom? Yeah, I wouldn't either.

metirish Sep 20 2007 02:26 PM

I take the Metro North every day,never saw anything that made me paranoid,shocking how government spreads fear among the people.

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 02:27 PM

I'd certainly have said something to someone at some point from your description of the scenario, but its hard to say at what point, is the potential confederate's nervous/anxious glances enough? probably not, i'm pretty lazy and don't like getting out of my seat. I think when the guy got up and left his bag thats the point at which i'm finding an officer, i havent taken metronorth much so maybe its normal but on amtrak i'd never have left my bag (my backpack, i'm not talking about luggage in the overhead) if i got up.

TransMonk Sep 20 2007 02:27 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Specifically it's the leaving the backpack for a time that's troublesome. I mean would you leave yours unattended while in the bathroom? Yeah, I wouldn't either. Nail on the head.

soupcan Sep 20 2007 02:28 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Specifically it's the leaving the backpack for a time that's troublesome. I mean would you leave yours unattended while in the bathroom? Yeah, I wouldn't either. Exactly what punctuated it for me. I thought that the other guy was observing what would happen if the first guy left his bag.

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 02:28 PM

]I take the Metro North every day,never saw anything that made me paranoid,shocking how government spreads fear among the people. asking people to be alert constitutes "spreading fear" and its the government not the terrorists who have given us reason to be more alert? thats pretty dumb.

metirish Sep 20 2007 02:29 PM

Nymr83 wrote: ]I take the Metro North every day,never saw anything that made me paranoid,shocking how government spreads fear among the people. asking people to be alert constitutes "spreading fear" and its the government not the terrorists who have given us reason to be more alert? thats pretty dumb. Not surprised that you would think that actually.

Gwreck Sep 20 2007 02:30 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Specifically it's the leaving the backpack for a time that's troublesome. I mean would you leave yours unattended while in the bathroom? Yeah, I wouldn't either. All the rest of the stuff is irrelevant, IMO. Leaving bags unattended is a big no-no and just about any idiot should know better than to be doing so on public transit/in a public transit station, even if it was a mistake. As he was walking away, I would've called out to him that he left it. If he ignored you, that would've been the time to report it.

soupcan Sep 20 2007 02:32 PM

Gwreck wrote: As he was walking away, I would've called out to him that he left it. If he ignored you, that would've been the time to report it. Excellent thinking.

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 02:33 PM

metirish wrote: ="Nymr83"] ]I take the Metro North every day,never saw anything that made me paranoid,shocking how government spreads fear among the people. asking people to be alert constitutes "spreading fear" and its the government not the terrorists who have given us reason to be more alert? thats pretty dumb. Not surprised that you would think that actually. not suprised that you don't take security seriously.

Edgy DC Sep 20 2007 02:46 PM

I might've done what you did; 1) Felt nervous. 2) Felt bad about feeling nervous. 3) Felt impotent. 4) Done nothing. 5) Felt bad about doing nothing. 6) Tried to feel better by doing some relatively inconsequential followup. One thing about working with the homeless, it makes you a better reader of people and a little less shy about stepping up yourself when you think someone should step up. I guess that's a good measurement. If you think somebody else should do something, you should do sometihng. One should know better than to walk away from one's backpack on public transit no matter how tan one is. I imagine you would've hated yourself all the more if an hour of backups happened and there was nothing but Campbell's soup in his bag, but you shouldn't.

soupcan Sep 20 2007 02:51 PM

Edgy DC wrote: I imagine you would've hated yourself all the more if an hour of backups happened and there was nothing but Campbell's soup in his bag, but you shouldn't. I appreciate that and you're right. ("Don't Tase Me Bro!" - too funny)

Benjamin Grimm Sep 20 2007 02:53 PM

I have to say I'm with Namor on this one. There has been a lot of fear spreading. Probably too much. But there ARE bad guys out there, and we SHOULD be alert. And this is the kind of stuff we've been asked to look for. I wouldn't have called out to the guy, as suggested above. You might have suddenly found a knife at your throat. (Who knows?) I might have gone into another car and alerted someone. Or called 9-1-1. The abandonment of the backpack would have pushed me to act. The praying wouldn't have. (I don't think.) I did once call 9-1-1 when driving through a bad area in Baltimore. I saw some kids dragging barrels into the street and lining them up in a way that would block traffic. I scooted by them before the street could be blocked and then called 9-1-1 from my cell. If I reported that, I suppose I would have reported this. Better safe than sorry. And if you don't want to be wrongly accused, don't behave suspiciously.

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 02:55 PM

]2) Felt bad about feeling nervous. theres the step that needs to be eliminated. certain people are inherently more suspicious than others. 20 year old arab men are more suspicious than 50 year old chinese women, and theres nothing wrong with feeling that way. does anyone happen to know, because i don't, if congress ever passed that proposed bill to give tort-immunity to anyone who reported suspicious activity? (it was originally brought up in responce to those imams at the airport who got reported and then tried to sue the concerned citizens)

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 02:57 PM

damn kids and their barrels. yancy, you probably ruined their plans to fill the barrels with fireworks or something and light them up like my idiot neighbors on july 4th used to do

Edgy DC Sep 20 2007 03:02 PM

Nymr83 wrote: ]2) Felt bad about feeling nervous. theres the step that needs to be eliminated. certain people are inherently more suspicious than others. 20 year old arab men are more suspicious than 50 year old chinese women, and theres nothing wrong with feeling that way. does anyone happen to know, because i don't, if congress ever passed that proposed bill to give tort-immunity to anyone who reported suspicious activity? (it was originally brought up in responce to those imams at the airport who got reported and then tried to sue the concerned citizens) Inherently? Please.

martin Sep 20 2007 03:04 PM

one time one of them tallyban tannenbaums sat next to jamie foxx on an airplane.

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 03:12 PM

"lets just go back to black, white, and mexican" LOL

Kid Carsey Sep 20 2007 04:11 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 21 2007 07:25 AM

Leaving an unattended bag anywhere is fucked up nowadays. How does anyone know if it was a practice run or the real thing or an absent minded mistake. I feel for ya soup, I don't know what I would have done. I think gwrecks take is a good idea and one that everyone would be smart to file away in their memory banks. I don't buy the governement fear mongering either .... there's shit going on everyday and Metro North's worst nightmare is someone triying to blow up a train in the Park Ave. tunnel. The terroristic fear factor, the loss of life, and economic impact of disrupting the traffic in and out of there is almost too good to be true for people wanting to fuck us up. I had a huge scare (I don't think I posted about it) early this year on an early flight to Dallas. Me and a co-worker were sitting in first class a couple of rows from the cockpit door and be- fore the plane levels off the stewardess emerges from her station, stops by my side, puts her hand on my arm, and whispers to me, "if we need your help on this flight can I count on you to help us?" I'm like, "yeah, sure." She told me later when they started serving us that there were a couple of suspicious men seated in the last row of the plane and that there were armed air marshalls on board and they eyeball a couple of able bodied looking people (I'm kinda large) to alert from time to time just in case and not to worry it's just a precaution. I was amazingly calm about the whole thing but I can't say the same about my travel partner. We were doing one of those 22 hour days back and forth and she just couldn't relax until we landed back in NYC.

Nymr83 Sep 20 2007 04:23 PM

I guess when they pick you out to help as a precaution you know that your time at the gym has been well spent.

cooby Sep 20 2007 04:34 PM

Better late than never. Maybe they'll be on the look out for them tomorrow, just to be sure. Meanwhile, drive to work, please. (somewhere on another fan forum there is a Middle Eastern (or Hispanic) guy posting about a blond man who looks like a Simpsons character who seemed to be in kahoots with and keeping all sorts of tabs with some suspicious character on his Metro North train....)

Kid Carsey Sep 20 2007 05:12 PM

Ny: >>>you know that your time at the gym has been well spent<<< I'm just large compared to the stewardesses, it ain't like I work out or anything and I'm in my mid-forties.

soupcan Sep 21 2007 07:50 AM

UPDATE: No terrorist sightings this morning. Just non-suspiciuos white, black and hispanic folk snoozing, reading papers and drinking coffee. No praying, davening or reconnaissance as far as I could tell.

Johnny Dickshot Sep 21 2007 08:29 AM

If I want to fuck-up a few terrorists I'm calling KC too.

Iubitul Sep 22 2007 07:45 AM

I go to Boston for a conference, and I miss all the excitement... I ride Metro-North everyday, and I feel your pain, Soup. You did the right thing by calling - the fact that he left his backpack is huge, and anyone with an ounce of grey matter would know better. It very possibly could have been some sort of test, or it could have been totally innocent - I see some supposedly intelligent people do dumb things every day. Either way, you have no reason to feel guilty.