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Sob Story Guy resorts to holding train hostage

Christoper tweets from Boylston this morning that a Sob Story Guy held a trolley door open and refused to let it close until somebody gave him some money.

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Comments

Upside his head. This guy is only a step away from attacking someone. The cops need to handle this guy before someone gets hurt.

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Not enabling his problems by rewarding him IS a form of compassion. This can be accomplished without hating on him.

He's now getting desperate because people are aware of him and his con and not giving him any money.

His actions will soon bring the sort of consequences that may lead him to reconsider his behaviors in a positive way.

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"His actions will soon bring the sort of consequences that may lead him to reconsider his behaviors in a positive way."

Keep dreaming. The only thing he will reconsider is how to effectively get money to support his habit. He'll probably start stealing unattended bags or trying for unlocked car doors.

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The MBTA and BPD will finally have to arrest his pathetic arse and send him though the court system.

With any luck, he'll be banned from the T, rearrested, and things will escalate.

Those consequences won't happen if people continue to subsidize his "lifestyle" or whatever you want to call it.

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His actions will soon bring the sort of consequences that may lead him to reconsider his behaviors in a positive way.

Maybe he'll find that $8000.00 that Uncle Billy left at the bank instead of Mr. Potter!

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His actions will soon bring the sort of consequences that may lead him to reconsider his behaviors in a positive way.

Those 'consequences' are likely to involve someone pushing him through the open door and down the steps onto the platform, if he continues to do this.

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While yelling "THIS. IS. BOYLSTON!"

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Just what "actions" are you thinking of? Beating someone up? Pushing someone into the pit in front of an oncoming train? I guess we just have to sit around and see, since it seems that's the only compassionate thing to do. Because, you know, very real threats to public safety don't deserve any consideration in the matter.

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First, if people are merely ignoring him out of self-concern and not in order to somehow help him then their acts aren't compassionate.

Secondly, you have no idea whatsover why he has escalated his behavior.

Maybe, you know a non UH read committed an act they THEY defined as a compassionate and bought his story and gave him a bunch of money.

Now he might be coming down from a high and acting even more aggressively.

Just as plausible as your spin.

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This will be his undoing. Obstructing a public conveyance in this manner is not lawful (and is easily distinguishable from the routine "obstruction of the doors"). I will look for the section of the General Laws that proscribes such activity if I have time, but I presume (and hope) that the T police know it right of the top of their heads.

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isn't it also unlawful to panhandle on the trains? Something about the audience being captive, unlike a public sidewalk or street where you can just walk away if you want to.

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AFTER he's incarcerated, rehabilated and repentive.

Guy should be prosecuted and banned from the T.

I'll leave the mocking to the boys in the cell block.

Why do I have the feeling he'll quickly change his behavior when he's in the can and has a tougher crowd to adjust his behavior for?

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Anybody ever see the woman who gets on at Government Center with a sob story about losing her phone, wallet, charlie card, and everything else? Really loud and obnoxious. She gave her speech and was getting of at Hynes while at was seated near the door reading on my phone. She started yelling at me to stop taking her picture. I didn't say anything and she kept going for 30 seconds holding up the door. Saw her again at Government Center a few weeks ago, but didn't notice if she got on a train.

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Why didn't the driver tell him to knock it off?

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... We all became aware of this jackhole over the summer. He'd wander around Tremont St., down through Back Bay, and all over, pulling the same bullshit.

Recently, he's made his way into Central Square in Cambridge. Last week, it was reported that he actually barged INTO a few restaurants (Moksa, Veggie Galaxy, Whatever that Chinese place is next to ZuZu) and started getting aggressive and loud with patrons eating dinner, looking for money.

Will someone just lock this motherfucker up already? Either that, or just... knock him the fuck out.

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He tried that stunt at several restaurants at the Pru and at the movie theater on the common earlier this year too.

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A while ago.
I recoginezed hime immediately and had the bartender and manager hive him the hook.

Claims to have been in Walpole. Needs to do another 20 there.

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Why don't the T cops stop searching through bags (and gathering in small groups to talk shop while doing so) and get after this person, who has been plaguing the system and annoying thousands of people for months now, and keep him off before someone takes a swing at him?

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Question is, who is he related to/connected to/have the goods on such that he freely roams the system and local businesses pulling this crap?

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I've had the unfortunate privilege of hearing this guy tell whatever sob-story he's come up with that day almost 20 times (I've even been hit by some of his oddly profuse counterfeit tears). Once I saw him standing in the TD Garden parking garage pay window area on his knees bawling. Almost every time some tourist with a map of the freedom trail in one hand pulls out their wallet with the other. I once saw a man with a Minnesota Timberwolves hat (very much proof he isn’t from around here) and hand this dude a $50.

Maybe someone should take an ad out on all of those redundant billings scattered throughout the MBTA areas with a picture of this dude reading “please don’t pay this man.”

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Has anyone actually called the cops and told them about this guy? Have you? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of...blah blah blah. The guidance suggested to us riders is "see something, SAY something" and not just on social network sites. Jus sayin'

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The MBTA police are well aware of who he is...the problem is that he's quick, and knows how to avoid managers/cops in the stations. I see it at South Station all the time. Gets on a train during the rush with the crowd, and as the crew is getting ready, walks through the train begging for money. Someone gets the crew, who in turn call for the cops, and in the meantime he slips off to the next train...it's so annoying...

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MBTA police should be stationed on platforms insead of riding around in cruisers or lounging at "substations" most of the day.

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Yes. If you searched the past posts about the sob story guy here on the site, he had past encounters with the MBTA police and other T personnel. Sometimes he slips away, other times he does get caught. Outside of the T, I'm not sure if he ever encountered the Boston Police or Cambridge Police as it seems like the restaurants he barged into handled that guy themselves without police action.

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You mean like mentioning the location and @mbtaGM, which happens to be run by, you guessed it, the MBTA GM?

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If there were a cop handy on a train or a platform I would gladly point him out, but there are usually none around, hence my post. I have in fact, e-mailed the T police on the least two occasions, and would suspect others have too after all this time. But to your last post I would think any modern law-enforcement agency would be social-media savvy enough to have gotten more than enough information via those channels - pertinent, real-time information as to his whereabouts at any given time. I've seen hundreds of tweets about this guys merely by searching the hashtag #MBTA - why can't the cops do the same?

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If he didn't spend so much money getting on and off the subway, I'm sure he could have saved up enough money to get to his grandmother's house by now.

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This comment takes the cake. You win, Nancy, you win.

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He once did this on a train I was riding on, in the second car (probably so the driver wouldn't hear him.) When no one gave him money, he sat down in the back stairwell and started kicking the door and flailing around. It was pretty scary.

I ended up notifying the driver (who didn't seem to notice, or pretend not to?), and MBTA PD nabbed him at the next stop. It was one of the more gratifying moments I've had on the T.

My question: they've got to be aware of him by now. Why can't they just keep an eye out for him and ban him from the system altogether (underground, anyway)?

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is this the same guy with the basically identical story every time? "My hand is infected, I have HIV, and there's a bed waiting for me in New Bedford at such and such rehab" dude? He threatened to "stab me in the eye" a few weeks ago when i confronted him. he'll always yell back for a second...and then walk away. When you offer to buy him that magic ticket to rehab, he's just not that interested anymore.

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Wow, your compassionate gesture was met wiht a threat of violence?

I'm shocked.

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ah well i prefaced it by saying he was full of it

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