I saw something this morning that felt all wrong, and though I alerted the authorities, I feel it's worth telling all of you also. (Ignore it if you want ... I may be wrong).
I got on the R train at 59th street. As I got on, there was a muslim-looking guy that got on at the same station (dark skin, white skull-cap, black sandals, gold watch, and a silver counter ... the kind of thing bars use to track how many people come in and out). As the train pulled into the station, he was counting. He got on, I got on right after him. He sat down, and I stood next to him. As the train went between stations, he counted ... what seemed like each second. So I kept staring at him. He counted the seconds the train sat in the station, and the time between stations. So I confronted him ... asked him what he was doing .... what he was counting. He ignored me. I asked him again ... asked what he was counting the seconds for. He ignored me again, and reset his counter.
It seemed like he continued to mumble something ... maybe praying, maybe counting, maybe just cursing at me .... I don't know. My usual stop is 49th St. but I stayed on the train, hoping a cop would get on at 42nd Street. They didn't ... but the train was stopped for another reason, so I hopped off, went and told the conductor ... gave him a description of the guy, which train car he was in ... and told him what he was doing. I also went up to the ticket booth, asked the woman to call a cop, which she did ... and I told him what I saw. He gave me the number of NYC detectives to call, which I did ... and gave them a description of the guy, and told him what I saw.
I've never seen anything first-hand that felt so suspicious and just wrong. I can't conceive of a normal reason why this guy would possibly be counting. I'm hoping they alert other officers to keep their eyes open for more of the same, but it makes complete sense that train timing could be used for malicious purposes.
Maybe I'm wrong ... but I'm posting this in the hope that others will keep their eyes opened for anything similar. Maybe he was doing something completely innocuous ... and I hope I'm wrong about all of this, but I'd rather people be aware. If I see a second guy on a subway with a silver clicker, he's getting tackled and dragged to the cops.
I got on the R train at 59th street. As I got on, there was a muslim-looking guy that got on at the same station (dark skin, white skull-cap, black sandals, gold watch, and a silver counter ... the kind of thing bars use to track how many people come in and out). As the train pulled into the station, he was counting. He got on, I got on right after him. He sat down, and I stood next to him. As the train went between stations, he counted ... what seemed like each second. So I kept staring at him. He counted the seconds the train sat in the station, and the time between stations. So I confronted him ... asked him what he was doing .... what he was counting. He ignored me. I asked him again ... asked what he was counting the seconds for. He ignored me again, and reset his counter.
It seemed like he continued to mumble something ... maybe praying, maybe counting, maybe just cursing at me .... I don't know. My usual stop is 49th St. but I stayed on the train, hoping a cop would get on at 42nd Street. They didn't ... but the train was stopped for another reason, so I hopped off, went and told the conductor ... gave him a description of the guy, which train car he was in ... and told him what he was doing. I also went up to the ticket booth, asked the woman to call a cop, which she did ... and I told him what I saw. He gave me the number of NYC detectives to call, which I did ... and gave them a description of the guy, and told him what I saw.
I've never seen anything first-hand that felt so suspicious and just wrong. I can't conceive of a normal reason why this guy would possibly be counting. I'm hoping they alert other officers to keep their eyes open for more of the same, but it makes complete sense that train timing could be used for malicious purposes.
Maybe I'm wrong ... but I'm posting this in the hope that others will keep their eyes opened for anything similar. Maybe he was doing something completely innocuous ... and I hope I'm wrong about all of this, but I'd rather people be aware. If I see a second guy on a subway with a silver clicker, he's getting tackled and dragged to the cops.
:Q
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