# Unsettling subway experience.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 10, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641 "2000-09-10T02:17:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/21 "2000-09-10T03:07:41Z")
If not I’ll share a funny experience along those lines. My cousin and I were driving into downtown Houston to go to some bars one night and, as we rounded a corner on the block that is City Hall, a classic trenchcoater flashed us. We laughed, but much more so when we got halfway up the block and realized a press conference must have just ended. About a dozen news crew, complete with minicams, were about 30 yards from giving this guy his 15 minutes of fame.
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### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/22 "2000-09-10T05:12:21Z")
I’m sure Angie and Leah would like to hear lots of big city dwellers’ tales (although Leah did previously live in Chicago, the largest city Angie lived in was about 58,000).
Too bad the guy didn’t get his 15 minutes of fame; would have gotten him free room and board for a while on the county.
Lsura, love your graphics.
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### Author:  [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/23 "2000-09-10T05:17:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Angie Gailbird \*
> **and I take the number 7 train almost every day to get to Manhattan.**
I’ve found that just being a jerk is the quickest way to get to manhattan. 😃
We love you, manny. 😉
–Tim
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### Author:  [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/24 "2000-09-10T05:26:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Leah Zero \*
> **There were enough other people in the car that we wouldn’t have had to face him alone if he tried anything.**
You did say this was New York, right?
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### Author:  [@Beth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beth)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/25 "2000-09-10T05:51:13Z")
Angie, that’s really funny. I’ve actually heard lots of stories like that, though. Once, Katiria (my roommate from this summer, for anyone else who’s reading this) was riding the train with one of her friends, and the car was really
crowded, and the guy sitting across from them took his dick out and started masturbating right there in the crowded subway car. Most people just avoided watching, some laughed, but no one said anything to him. He finished, right there on the subway car floor, as the train was coming to a stop. As Katiria and her friend were exiting the car, they had to walk past him to get out the door, and he turned to her friend and said, “That was for you, baby.”
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### Author:  [@Angie\_Gailbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angie_Gailbird)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/26 "2000-09-10T06:01:43Z")
…
That’s gross. I’m very, VERY glad that Leah and I got off the subway when we did.
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### Author:  [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/27 "2000-09-10T07:10:52Z")
I’m of the “make a public scene” persuasion, as long as there are other people around. I’d have told him in a loud voice to put it back in his pants and then moved to another pole or another car, but getting off the train (assuming it was at a populated stop where there would have been help available had he followed you) isn’t a bad idea.
I don’t mean to give any other moms anything MORE to worry about, but this kind of thing isn’t all that unusual on public transit in ANY city. I’ve noticed that young women are not only the likeliest targets, they’re also the least likely to make a fuss about it. Forget about being polite or nice; it’s okay to make some noise about it when someone’s committing a crime. If he’d been rooting around in your purse looking for your wallet, you’d have spoken up, right?
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/28 "2000-09-10T09:52:49Z")
Although I’m a guy, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have developed the ability to ride subways without holding on to anything. Had it been me, I would have gotten uncomfortable with having someone’s hand against mine unnecessarily, and simply not used the pole. And since it was the 7, was it one of the red ones with the individual straps hanging from the cieling? Perfect for that situation.
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### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/29 "2000-09-10T13:11:47Z")
Are you our hometown girl, who was is NY for the summer, or another Beth?
Those are the times when you wish you were really great with one liners (maybe, “you should have wrapped it.”)
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### Author:  [@fierra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fierra)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/30 "2000-09-10T14:47:31Z")
When I was at school I had to travel by train across Birmingham (UK) every day. The train had those little compartments - seats 12, no corridor, so being kids we used to hog the compartment & there were about 10 of us in there. A guy got on at Birmingham & got off at the next stop…but when he got off he opened the door early an inch or two 7 shoved his dick through the gap…I can’t help thinking about what would have happened if the train had jolted!
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### Author:  [@echidnasarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echidnasarf)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/31 "2000-09-10T15:40:25Z")
I was visiting a friend out at Hofstra (out on Long Island) about ten years ago, and had to get back to Brooklyn that night… ended up on the Subway at 3am. THere were three people on it. Me (6’3", 300 pounds), an ex-Marine, and a piss-soaked bum in the first seat (I say bum, because he wasn’t homeless. The Marine said that they live on the same block… and when we got to the Marine’s stop, he woke the guy up and they both got off). The Marine spent the entire trip bitching and moaning about how much he ‘hates this f\*ckin’ town’. I askes him where he was from, he says ‘Queens’. Turns out he thought that NYC was the greatest place in the world, until he joined the Marines, and got to see the rest of it
AS for your co-commuter… I nice soda poured on his groin would probably have ended that situation real quick (and the acids in the cola would probably help clean the floor, too!)😃
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### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/32 "2000-09-10T16:39:35Z")
Good input from all you city dwellers (not that it comforts me any, but will give Angie and Leah ideas).
I guess we moms just need to get used to the idea that our babies will not always be under our protection (and sometimes bad things happen even then).
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/33 "2000-09-10T17:00:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by waterj2 \*
> Although I’m a guy, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have developed the ability to ride subways without holding on to anything.
Oh my! I read this just after I read the one about the guy jerking off on the subway. You can only imagine what I thought that you had trained yourself out of “holding on” to! :eek:
**Angie:** Another option would have been to walk forward at the next stop and inform the train operator. I would have been concerned that the creep would follow me off.
Welcome to the board.
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### Author:  [@dewt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dewt)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/34 "2000-09-10T17:11:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Spider Woman \*
> \*\*I guess we moms just need to get used to the idea that our babies will not always be under our protection (and sometimes bad things happen even then). \*\*
Maybe so, but we parents don’t actually have to _say_ it do we? 😉
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### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/35 "2000-09-10T17:27:39Z")
I must confess that I don’t know much about the subway system, so I am glad for the advice you give. The closest I have ever come, I guess, would be riding the “El” in Chicago, and I wasn’t aware whether they had personnel on the train or it was all run by computer or something.
What happened to Angie and Leah probably could also have happened here, I guess, but didn’t.
(True, dewt :).)
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### Author:  [@Felinecare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felinecare)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/36 "2000-09-10T20:13:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Angie Gailbird \*
> \*\*I think basically, that getting off the train was the best thing we could have done. I don’t really know what else I could have done.
>
> Anyone have suggestions? I’ve been thinking about buying mace. \*\*
Once upon a time, I was alone on a subway car when a man got on and sat down next to me. And started groping me. I looked directly in his eyes, and said, _Stop being a pain in the ass._ We had a staring contest, then _he_ moved to another seat.
Never give up your ground unless you think you’re in physical danger. Don’t be afraid to loudly and disdainfully comment, especially if other people are around.
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### Author:  [@Angie\_Gailbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angie_Gailbird)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/37 "2000-09-10T23:17:06Z")
Thanks for the advice, everyone. I hope I won’t have to use it.
At the time it was actually happening, I didn’t know it the guy was actually trying to keep touching my hand, or if his was just slipping on the pole. I tend to be paranoid. I’m glad that I looked down when I did, though, because the car was stopped. I didn’t even really think, I just wanted to GET OUT OF THERE.
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### Author:  [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/38 "2000-09-10T23:25:40Z")
I’ve never taken a subway (100% country girl here, and I’m going to go to college in a small town, too, so I’m wretched underexposed… Oh lord, pun not intended.) But I have a bus story, if I could share it…
Over Memorial Day, almost the entire school band and chorus (that’s about 150 to 200 kids) of my high school took a bus trip to Washington, DC, for three days and two nights, where we would perform in front of the Lincoln Memorial. At one point in the ten-hour drive, we were stuck in a traffic jam in a dirty little city in north New Jersey. I was somehow stuck on the bus with all the boys, and they were pointing out every single woman on the road thinking they were hookers. Luckily the windows didn’t open, so no poor lady was harrassed in her hearing.
In the midst of all this discussion of hookers and bums, I happened to look out the window on my side of the bus, close to the sidewalk. Of course I immediately called over all the boys, because right htere under my window a man was standing with his pants open, pissing on the side of our bus…
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### Author:  [@Wicked\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wicked_Blue)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/39 "2000-09-11T03:06:13Z")
Wow! Three weeks in NYC and you’ve only seen **one** penis? You girls must walk around with your eyes closed. 😉
Rose
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### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2000, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsettling-subway-experience/32641/40 "2000-09-11T05:30:44Z")
Yow. What a shocking, sick, terrifying… and funny tale. If it’s any consolation, I’ve riden the NYC subway for all my life and I can only recall two tales of rail-riding pervs… and you experience an encounter that easily tops both of mine after only three weeks!
Just today a couple of friends told me of an episode they witnessed in midtown about a week ago: respectible-looking, upper-middle class man driving around crowded Manhattan streets during the day – in a convertible – oblivious to all onlookers, penis in hand, wacking off!
Maybe there’s something in that mosquito spray that brings out the perv in a guy.
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