The suitcase on the train

The BBQ Pit
1

As usual, I rode the train home last night. Found my seat on the side of the train that isn’t blasted by the setting sun, got comfy, pulled out the book I was reading, ticket at the ready for the nice conductor person to check… yes, I am a veteran train commuter (been at it 21 years in fact).

Anyhow, were about to pull out of the second station on the line going east when the conductor person stops in the middle of the car. This is an area with doors, not seats, so there’s a little more room than usual there. He stops, looks in the door area, looks up and down the car, then looks back.

“HEY! Does this suitcase belong to anyone?”

Now, the train is usually a little noisy, what with conversation, people shuffling around, putting stuff up into the luggage racks, rustling newspapers and magazines, and the folks destroying their hearing with too-loud headphones. So the conductor repeats himself.

“Does this suitcase belong to anyone?”

No response. He looks at the suitcase. He looks up and down the car again. He looks at the emergency stop lever (Yeah… I’m thinking along those lines, too). A couple people (including me) have looked up at this point.

The conductor turns to one end of the car. “DOES THIS SUITCASE BELONG TO ANYONE OF YOU?”

That time, he got some attention. The ambient noise drops abruptly. Lots of heads shaking “no”. And certain tension is starting to build.

The conductor takes a step back, turns to my half of the car. “DOES THIS SUITCASE BELONG TO ANYONE?”

It is now quiet in the train car, you can hear the ventilation fans and conversation from people outside on the platform, and I feel my head swinging back and forth along with everyone else’s. Yes, it’s remarkably quiet in here, except for that one lady back there with her cellphone going yak yak yak yak yak…. It’s sort of interesting, in a macabre way, the manner in which the car has fallen silent and this odd, coiled-spring tension starting to mount, the commuters sitting up straight and gathering their belongings together…

yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak yak…

“ONE LAST TIME, DOES THIS SUITCASE BELONG TO ANYONE ON THIS TRAIN?”

yak yak yak yak yak yeah, it’s mine yak yak yak yak…

Silent hostile glares beam like spotlights at the offending woman.

“What? It’s just a suitcase. What’s the big deal?” yak yak yak yak yak … “What? Get up and get my suitcase? It’s too heavy - that’s why I left it there. No, I don’t want to get up - you move it. Call the cops? What for? What’s wrong with leaving a suitcase over there? What’s it going to do to you?”

So help me, I could have sworn there was a low sort of growl from the crowd.

“What?” yak yak yak gotta go, this guy is getting all pissy over my suitcase. He’s making me move my suitcase yak yak yak… bye “This is outrageous! I can’t believe this! What’s wrong with you people?”

OK, boys and girls, we all know why folks on big city commuter trains get nervous around a Lone Suitcase sitting all by itself, yes?

2

Oooh! Oooh! <raises hand>

It’s because it could be, oh, I don’t know, A BOMB??? :eek:

I could almost understand the woman’s confusion if this had happened before 9/11, but in this day and age how could someone not get how suspicious it is to find a lone suitcase. Especially after the recent terrorist attack on those commuter trains in Spain! I always get nervous when I see a seemingly unattended bag or package when I’m out and about, even before 9/11, because of the time I spent studying in London. There were at least two times I saw trains speeding through stations with no passengers. My fellow commuters told me that they only do that when they’re worried about there being a bomb on board. Now, most of the time it’s just a bag/package/whatever that was forgotten by a passenger, but every so often…it isn’t. :eek:

Broomstick, did the conductor throw the twit off the train into the waiting arms of the police? I hope I hope I hope! I would have been tempted to ram that cell phone where the sun doesn’t shine, but it looks like there obviously wouldn’t have been any room since her head was already firmly lodged there. What a :wally
Engel

3

People are clueless. I think it’s excellent that the conductor noticed in the first place. I remember watching somewhat ruefully as a dozen cops and various armed service men swarmed over a spot in Grand Central station for a while. The culprit? Someone’s dropped jacket.

At any rate, had it been a train I was on, and the conductor pulled the brake and forced an evacuation of the suitcase (and its outraged owner, perhaps) I would gladly have weathered the delay just to see the woman get an upclose education in Homeland Security.

4

Hell, I’d have booted her ass off the train just for yakking too loud on her damn cell phone . . .

5

It’s funny that you bring this up, because a few months ago a friend of mine had the exact same experience while taking a train from London to Glasgow. The only difference was that they knew who had left the bag unattended for so long, and were nervous because it was an obviously Muslim woman (headscarf and all). Of course, nothing was actually amiss, but I can understand the basis for their concern. The real pitting should be of the conditions that create this kind of fear, but that’s for another thread.

6

Could we please deport her to Israel, posthaste, so she could get a little education on what real counterterrorism security is like? I haven’t been myself, I’m going on what I’ve read and what good friends have told me, but my understanding is Israeli cops don’t sit around having conversations about bags left unattended.

Even hear in New York, we don’t really know what it’s like.

7

Though not everyone does, or at least did: there are still “Stupid Laws Trivia” pages listing

“In England it is illegal to leave baggage unattended.”

Most of the stupid laws are bullshit, but they all sound stupid, so someone obviously thinks this is stupid.

8

Yep, that one’s bullshit. It probably stems from somebody maliciously leaving a bag unattended as a ‘joke’ and ending up being prosecuted for wasting police time, or something like that.

9

Well maybe, just maybe, it seems a bullshit law to those who are fairly inexperienced in domestic terrorism, but to call it bullshit when the reality is that in the UK we have had to deal with Irish terrorists for 30 years is somewhat misinformed.

If you have to live with the real possibility of such events for 30 years, along with a few outrages, and find your security forces are hampered by ignorant self absorbed gossiping idiots or extremely humorous practical jokers who manage to close large railway stations down for hours until the suspect object is investigated, then perhaps you might just understand where this legislation os comong from…until then I’d suggest keeping a sock in it.

10

I meant bullshit as in non-existent.

11

(Note: the existance of such a law is irrelevant to my point, which was that someone thought such a law was stupid, and hence probably didn’t have any idea why you shouldn’t leave luggage about. But in the interests of fighting ignorance I decided to try to find out.)

I don’t know if there is a specific law against leaving bags unnatended, but it’s not so far from the truth. An annattended bag can certainly shut down a large train station for an hour, and so isn’t allowed, if not actually illegal. And for instance, here: a man non-deliberately left a bag in an airport, and was jailed.

12

Fair enough - and I note in that case, he was charged under catch-all public nuisance legislation. With a different lawyer, he could probably have won the case.

I’m now trying to find out if a specific law does or did exist, and all I can find is pages cut & pasted from www.dumblaws.com :rolleyes:

13

I am appalled at the insensitivity of posters toward the woman described in the OP.

There is nothing, nothing more important than this woman’s conversation and her right to enjoy it unfettered by the slightest concern for anyone and anything around her.

14

My husband and I were in the Honolulu Airport, when we noticed an unattended small piece of luggage. Our immediate dutiful sense thought, we need to report this immediately since this is what we are suppposed to do. We actually got up, moved away and looked for security. Ironically, there was no security anywhere in the terminal. Finally, we found a representative from the airlines and said there is an unattended bag and pointed to it. Her response, “Maybe they are coming back?”. So we said, but people are not supposed to leave unattended bags right?. She simply states again, “I don’t know maybe she is coming back”. My husband was so angry he said “go away, we are done speaking with you.” I know it seems sort of rude, but you must understand that she was so clueless and did not even get an inkling of the ramifications of her statement- for the record he is normally very polite. Yet, he (and I) was appalled at her utter lack of security. Sadly, most the people around us, did not appear to care either. We both know that 99% of the time it is nothing, but is this not what we, and especially the airlines, are supposed to be more vigilant about?

We walked away to get something to eat (figuring if that 1% chance does occur we are not going to be the mindless sheep who die) and found all of our “protectors” at the screening areas, making people remove their shoes. Most of them were sitting around talking (only about 5 people in line). Gee, maybe that manpower could be moved to the FREAKING TERMINAL WHERE THERE IS A POSSIBLE THREAT OF SOME NEFARIOUS DEED. sigh

15

Just for the record - my co-workers have voted about 15 to 1 that they should have called the FBI in and Homeland and had her submit to a full body cavity search.

The one dissenter muttered something about “thinning the herd” before wandering off.

16

We had a case like this a few weeks ago at Logan Airport in Boston. We were called to a gate by a passenger who spotted an unattended bag. We asked if it belonged to anyone and got no response. I kept an eye on it while my colleague notified the state police. The nice officer and his nice dog came, checked out the bag and left, taking the bag with him. About 20 minuets later the passenger returned, only to find his bag missing. The gate attendant for the airlines was totally oblivious to the situation, and came over to see us about the missing bag. Only then did she learn that it had been turned over to the state police by the TSA. The passenger was not happy, was even less happy when he learned that he would miss his flight because of this, and much less happy about the fine he had to pay. The signs and announcements that say “Do not leave bags unattended, unattended bags will be removed by the state police” mean just that. And in response to Lissa, did you report this to the TSA checkpoint supervisor, and if so what was the response. It is not the job of the airlines to deal with this but rather the airport security, police or TSA. Or was it easier to just walk away?

17

It wasn’t a question of ease, but one of frustration. We walked around in the terminal for about five minutes looking for someone, anyone who seemed to work there. I had assumed that even a desk attendant or a janitor would call security if they themselves couldn’t do anything about it. (I even entertained the idea of tying to use the phone on the unattended check-in desk to call for security, but was afraid I wasn’t allowed to do that.)

I had no idea there was a “proper” person to report the incident to-- I was under the assumption that airline security was everyone’s job. The woman we spoke to didn’t say anything along the lines of, “I have no authority in this matter. You’ll need to talk to so-and-so.” At least that would have given us some direction.

Maybe I should have stopped at the metal detectors and reported the bag, but at the time, I was so irritated, my only thought was, “Well, they’ll probably say that’s not their area, or they’re not allowed to leave the detectors.” Or worse, shrug it off like the woman we reported it to did.

18

When I am working the Mag (walk through metal detector) or on any other position on the check point, as you surmised, I can’t leave, but I can call for an assist or direct you to someone who can help. In my experience, most passengers are most willing to help, and are most cooperative, we have on average 4200 people through on my shift. 12:30 - 9:00 PM and at the end of the day only 2 – 3 stand out as having been a problem. The airlines are of no help to us at all, they do not want to run the risk of alienating a customer.

19

One time walking to throught Stapleton in Denver about 15 years ago my dad started a security ‘event.’ As we were walking through the terminal he said off-hand “Someone was really stupid to leave their bag there, The security don’t like that very much” I looked over to see a lone bag about 40 feet from the nearest person.

You have to realize that even when my dad uses his off hand conversational voice the dead cover their ears, so everybody within about 100 feet overheard the remark even over the din of the terminal. At the time a security guard was flirting with a desk person, and they both overheard. They looked over at the bag, and the security guy went ashen. He got on his walkie talkie and started saying something while staring at the bag. By the time we got to the main hub of the airport the announcer was saying that several gates were temporarily closed.

I never read anything about it in the paper so I imagine some idiot came back from the bathroom to find a wall of pissed-off security people surrounding their bag.

20

Last year i was on the Maryland commuter train (MARC) from Washington to Baltimore one afternoon. It was peak hour, so all seats were full, and there were some people standing in the aisles. I had a window seat.

We were about 15 minutes into the journey when the guy next to me got up to go to the bathroom. He said to me, in a joking voice, “Would you mind getting a description of whoever takes my briefcase?”, meaning that he wanted me to keep an eye on it while he was away. I laughed, and said “sure.”

It was only after he had been gone for a few minutes that it occurred to me that this would be the perfect way for someone to blow up a train. I spent an anxious moment or two wondering what i would do if he hadn’t returned by the next station stop (where he might be able to exit the train).

Well, predictably enough, he was back within a few minutes and everything was fine. But, as someone who’s never been particularly paranoid, and who has always had something of a fatalistic attitude about this sort of thing (“if it’s going to happen, then it will happen, and there’s no point worrying about it”), i was really quite amazed at my own somewhat nervous reaction to the situation. Sign of the times, i guess.

Oh yeah, and the woman described in the OP is an idiot.