What do you do? (talked with guy, post #34)

I just had a really weird experience. Even without the terror level being at orange, I would have taken notice. I was in a starbucks, and there was a guy waiting in line behind me. He answered his phone, and said "Well, has it exploded yet? Don't call me until it explodes!" and hung up.

That would have ment nothing to me. Myself, if I was doing tech support for someone or something like that, and they kept calling me, whatever, I'd be pissed too. But then about 45 seconds later, he gets another call. He answers "So did it explode?!" There was a brief pause, and then he started speaking in another language quickly and intently. After he got off the phone he was really trying to act casual, joking with everybody in line, with the workers, as he broke out into a sweat. He started acting really nervous while doing this.

But now the question is, what can someone do? If it was nothing, I'm an asshole, because I just got a dude hauled away to be questioned because I listened in on his phonecall. All I feel I can do is pay attention to the news. I studied his face as casually as I could incase something does go down, but that was it.

And I'd like to point out, he wasn't islamic, or even arabic. He looked more slavic, so this wasn't a blatant racism issue...

[Edited on 4-20-2004 by junglejake]

do your duty report it man.

even if it is a misunderstanding....

better safe then sorry if you know what i mean.

im geuss thi is the stuff they want us to look for on theys alerts if you had a cell you could have walked outside and called there.


-EDIT- if i were u i would call now, better late then never

[Edited on 23-12-2003 by Dmsoldier]

On the other hand, it sounded like it already exploded. He yelled about the other calling before it exploded, then he got another call, yelled has it exploded yet, and his whole persona changed. He wasn't mad, he was intense, as though suddenly he realized what just happened...

And who do you report it to?

[Edited on 12-23-2003 by junglejake]

Now that is certainly an interesting situation! In times like these, i would have done the same thing. You just can't take a chance. Better to be safe than sorry.

P.S. If you didn't report it, and then something happened and you found out it was him, how crappy would you feel? How many people could have died because you didn't speak up?

Just can't take chances..............

i would have just called 911 im sure they have a prosidure to telling the right ppl

OK, just reported it, and now the police are coming to question me. Good call, DM.

Well, unfortunatelly, they could do nothing. They'll go by the starbucks and see if he's there, otherwise, we wait to see if something blows up, in which case they're going to question me some more. LOL And my coworker is pissed at me for following through...

Thats kinda scarey..

What part of the states are you in..

I heard there was a explosion in Atlanta georgia
It was reported on skynews but only for a few secounds
they showed pics of a big appartment block on fire!

cant find any links though just looked on the skynews.com web site and found nothing...

prob no link to what you heard...but you never no!!

Good job calling, you never know...

But I have to say I've messed with people kinda sorta like that myself. Not exactly like that, but...

If you're out with a bit of a nervous nelly friend, as the server comes up and you have one of those awkward situations where the conversation just stops, like you were all into it, then annoyed by the server...

It's kind of fun to say something to your friend like: Look Ms Hellfire, $3 million split two ways is better than 3 ways anyday... now are you in or are you out?

I'm not saying it's right, but I might answer the phone IN LINE at Starbucks exactly the same way. I hate waiting in line at SB's.

I can't say I'm not guilty of the same thing. And I've been in a resteraunt when I was working at a subshop as the general manager, and a girl would call me up every half hour to let me know what sales were up to that point. That was what I had assumed at first. But then DM got me thinking...You know, what if it's not...

Oh, and I'm in Chicagoland, so it probably wasn't atlanta, but y'all never know...

Yeah Starbucks is a symbol of capitalist oppression and overindulgence. This guy was probably a stock broker who bought Starbucks stock and was bombing the competitors to inflate the value.

You did right by calling the police -

chances are no one who is going to commit a terrorist act is going to stand in Starbucks and talk about it on their cell without using some form of code words...
...but you did right to notify someone~

Originally posted by intelgurl
You did right by calling the police -

chances are no one who is going to commit a terrorist act is going to stand in Starbucks and talk about it on their cell without using some form of code words...
...but you did right to notify someone~

LOL That was why I wasn't going to call. I couldn't imagine someone that stupid. But then, maybe I give some of those terrorist grunts too much credit...

Originally posted by groingrinder
Yeah Starbucks is a symbol of capitalist oppression and overindulgence.

It's a f'in coffee shop!

I'm sick of starbucks slammers, its about the best quality coffee, muffins etc you get over here, and its priced very well compared to the other locals, i know people who work there and love the treatment they get.

You know, its possible for a business to be a sucess due to the good standards rather than screwing everyone out of cash, but then again, nobody likes a winner

I think you done the right thing as well...

You never know when your call could be the one that saves thousands of life's..

I mean think about it, If later this evening you heard there was a massive terror attack....then weeks later you heard that the terroist planner was in arrested in your home town, you would be thinking "if i had only made that call"

its better to be safe than sorry...i think is the motto here

I don't know what I would do.. I'd feel like calling, but probably ultimately wouldn't, probably. Maybe i'd tell someone else and they could call in, but I don't think I would.

Honestly, I wouldn't have called. I mean really, what terrorist would stand in the middle of Starbucks yelling about something exploding? No, actually if it was bothering me THAT much, I would have asked the guy what he was talking about.

These terror alerts are doing exactly what they intended...to keep us scared and parinoid. Reporting on other people. If we cradle in the arms of big bro nothing can happen. Everyone been reading their Newspeak dictionary?

[Edited on 12/23/2003 by Flinx]

Originally posted by Flinx
These terror alerts are doing exactly what they intended...to keep us scared and parinoid.

Somehow it strikes me as funny talking about being paranoid on this web site....

Originally posted by Flinx
Honestly, I wouldn't have called. I mean really, what terrorist would stand in the middle of Starbucks yelling about something exploding? No, actually if it was bothering me THAT much, I would have asked the guy what he was talking about.

Yeah, that's why I wouldn't call too. That, or he could have just been joking, and I would have looked like an over-cautious ass.

terrorism; the first six letters = terror.
that is the hole purpos
if you are afraid, stay home and hide under the bed
then, on the other hand, just shoot the SOB on the phone, he must be guilty of something