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davidfcooperSouth Shore Riders Mistake Man's Jewish Prayer Box for Bomb, Train Halted
November 16, 2007
By Erik Potter
Post-Tribune staff writer
A man wearing a Jewish prayer box saying his morning prayers brought a South Shore train to a standstill Thursday morning.
Passengers on the 108 train, traveling west from East Chicago just after sunrise, saw what they described as a suspicious looking man with "a box on his head" and "wires" running down his arm.
Fearing a bomb, the passengers alerted the train's ticket taker to their suspicions, which the South Shore's transit watch security program instructs them to do.
The ticket taker alerted the conductor, who, according to Bob Byrd, NICTD chief of security, attempted to strike up a conversation with the man to see if there was any danger. By this time the train had passed into Illinois and was travelling on the Metra tracks.
Byrd said the conductor did not receive much cooperation from the man or sufficient answers to his questions, so the conductor called the Metra police. At Chicago's 57th Street station, Metra police held the train and brought a bomb-sniffing dog on board.
There the man explained he was a Jew and was saying his morning prayers while wearing a tefillin, a small wooden box that contains prayers written on paper scrolls.
Observant Jews wear the tefillin every morning during prayer, except on the Sabbath, according to Michael Steinberg, director of the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana.
"Maybe the commuters on the train were reading a little more into it (than what was there)," Byrd said. "There was another gentleman of Middle Eastern descent wearing a turban sitting nearby. If you look at the totality of events, suspicions were raised."
Byrd called the event a "great example" of the transit watch system working.
"I can understand how someone who has never seen (a tefillin) before might be alarmed," Steinberg said. "I'm happy that we live in a society that is vigilant, but this also gives us an opportunity to gain a better understanding of different religions."
November 16, 2007
By Erik Potter
Post-Tribune staff writer
A man wearing a Jewish prayer box saying his morning prayers brought a South Shore train to a standstill Thursday morning.
Passengers on the 108 train, traveling west from East Chicago just after sunrise, saw what they described as a suspicious looking man with "a box on his head" and "wires" running down his arm.
Fearing a bomb, the passengers alerted the train's ticket taker to their suspicions, which the South Shore's transit watch security program instructs them to do.
The ticket taker alerted the conductor, who, according to Bob Byrd, NICTD chief of security, attempted to strike up a conversation with the man to see if there was any danger. By this time the train had passed into Illinois and was travelling on the Metra tracks.
Byrd said the conductor did not receive much cooperation from the man or sufficient answers to his questions, so the conductor called the Metra police. At Chicago's 57th Street station, Metra police held the train and brought a bomb-sniffing dog on board.
There the man explained he was a Jew and was saying his morning prayers while wearing a tefillin, a small wooden box that contains prayers written on paper scrolls.
Observant Jews wear the tefillin every morning during prayer, except on the Sabbath, according to Michael Steinberg, director of the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana.
"Maybe the commuters on the train were reading a little more into it (than what was there)," Byrd said. "There was another gentleman of Middle Eastern descent wearing a turban sitting nearby. If you look at the totality of events, suspicions were raised."
Byrd called the event a "great example" of the transit watch system working.
"I can understand how someone who has never seen (a tefillin) before might be alarmed," Steinberg said. "I'm happy that we live in a society that is vigilant, but this also gives us an opportunity to gain a better understanding of different religions."
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"wires" running down his arm.
Date: 2007-11-20 02:06 am (UTC)Re: "wires" running down his arm.
Date: 2007-11-20 02:58 am (UTC)Re: "wires" running down his arm.
Date: 2007-11-20 03:11 am (UTC)