Monday morning on the way to the train a very intesting thing happened. I was playing DS, minding my own business, and somebody sits down next to me in a two-seater. Usually people don’t like sitting right next to each other like that, but our train’s are always packed in tight so everyone is used to it.
The conductor comes by to collect tickets, I had already displayed my ticket a few stops back so I barely paid attention to anything around me. The conductor stops by my seat to collect a ticket from the guy next to me, and he notices that the man had purchased an off peak round trip ticket.
This happens a few times a month, and the conductor asks the person to pay an extra couple of bucks because its a peak train, blah blah, its a common mistake that happens to people new to the train, it happened to me, no big deal. NOT this time. Here’s a rough script of what went on:
Transcript of what went on first (C=Conductor, P=Guy next to me)
C: “Sir this is the wrong ticket for this train, its an off peak ticket.”
P: “What are you talking about”
C: “This round trip ticket is for off peak times, not during rush hour, you will have to pay an extra three dollars to ride”
P: “Are you kidding me (perhaps swearing)? I dont have three dollars, I’ve been using these tickets since October 1st!!”
(NOTE: a responce like this usually means that the person has gone through this before, making up dates so that it seems they had been doing this forever. also, at this point the person usually just PAYS, its THREE bucks after all)
C: “Well, I’m sorry for any inconvienance but it will cost three dollars to ride”
P: “This is BS (more swearing)”
C: “Sir if you dont pay I can arrange the police to meet you in Secaucus”
Ok so the guy explodes at this point, swearing, getting up in the conductors face, making all a fuss, I’m playing DS next to him. He sits back down, look at me a few times, I ignore him. Another different conductor walks up and tries to reason with the guy, he tells him to f-off (bad move), the conductor leaves. At this point the entire train is staring at him, and I’m acting like I’m playing, and smiling inside because stuff like this is great.
Here’s the best part, the train stops at Secaucus, the conductor has to go to the door to open it up. There’s nobody at the other end of the train. The guy jumps up and runs for the empty door. Cops are there and see this guy run, they grab him, tackle him to the ground and arrest him. Everybody in the train see this happen, the guy is yelling, fighting the cops, carrying on..its a great scene.
To sum this all up, this guy ends up getting arrested for not paying three dollars. He will most definately have to pay a fine, (up to 5,000 for harassing a conductor), and possibly something to get out of jail. Moral of the story, don’t be an idiot.