Peace (and quiet) at any price? It’s definitely illegal, but…
November 6th 2007 08:04 am
Cellphone noise pollution (from both the devices and the users) invades nearly every element of life these days, and nowhere is it more annoying and almost inescapable than in the cramped confines of public transportation. Here’s one CalTrain rider’s solution…
One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was “blabbing away” into her phone.
“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,” said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last name because what he did next was illegal.
Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cut off the chatterer’s cellphone transmission - and any others in a 30-foot radius.
“She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realized there was no one listening on the other end,” he said. His reaction when he first discovered he could wield such power? “Oh, holy moly! Deliverance.”
Bob Scheurle responded on 06 Nov 2007 at 12:06 pm #
Maybe we should go back to trains with windows that would open. Then you could just take the offender’s cell phone and toss it out the window!
I used to get a chuckle when people would be talking on their phone as the train was leaving Hoboken. The train would go into the Bergen Hill tunnels and the next thing you’d hear would be, “Hello? Hello?”
Jim Berrie responded on 06 Nov 2007 at 1:04 pm #
I was on the train once when a young woman was having a heated argument with someone, evidently her mother, on her cell phone. Her voice got louder and louder until finally she yelled “I don’t have to listen to this!” Without missing a beat, someone else in the car called out “Yeah, but the rest of us do!” She quieted down after that.