If I owned a building that had an escalator in it, I would frequently switch the direction on it, just to screw with people.  I can’t actually recall a time where I’ve actually seen an escalator  changed to go in the alternate direction… well that is until today. Apparently some funny person at the White Plains train station decided to do so. The north side escalator, which normally goes down, was going up. The south side escalator was not working. (So I am sure this wasn’t a joke, probably a conscious decision, in that it is easier to carry heavy items down stairs than it is to carry them up)

As I was riding up the escalator, I shouted out to my friend, “What the heck is this shit? Are they trying to fuck with us today?” A man observing at the top level began laughing. I’m not sure how long it had been going the opposite direction, but every time a train pulled into the station, it was absolute hilarity. Nowadays people are so focused on their technology, whether it be texting or talking on a phone, or maybe listening to some music, but people really don’t pay attention to what is going on. Several of these people just walked right onto the escalator without even noticing it was going the alternate direction, and were firmly deposited right back where they started. Other people gave some funny looks and walked away. And my favorites were the people that just walked over and stared dumbfounded at the escalator for far too long, perhaps contemplating the meaning of life as they blocked the people attempting to come up.

Let’s just say I was very depressed that I didn’t have my camera on me to take some video of that.

The other freak out of the day was me playing a joke on my friend. Monday morning as we waited for the shuttle bus to come pick us up at the station, I saw a man walk by and he was glancing at her. Just joking around I said, “oh look at him look at you, I think he likes you!” Silly innocent comment. Well fast-forward to later in the day, my friend comes into my office and work and hands me a paper printout of a mugshot. She said, “Is this the man we saw this morning at the train station?!” Apparently she was watching America’s Most Wanted online during her lunch break, and up comes a picture of a guy who is wanted for two murders. It also said that it is possible he is on the run in New York. I assured her that it wasn’t the guy we saw. But quite honestly, I can’t remember. I highly doubt it though.

Anyways, today I thought about Google searching the name of the man, so I asked my friend if she still had the printout she showed me earlier. She left it with me, and I said I would look and see online. Later in the day, I went to her cubicle and said that I had found information about him online. The conversation went somewhat like this:

Me: Yeah, I saw a website that said they saw him not too long ago in New York. At a train station too!
Her: What train station? Was it Metro North?
Me: Yeah, I think so… I’m trying to remember the name of the station, oh what is it called? Oh yeah, Fleetwood.

Of course this freaked her out, since Fleetwood is the station that she rides from… and I was totally bullshitting. So you probably don’t have to worry about that America’s Most Wanted fugitive, Calvin R. Sinclair. But hey, if you did happen to see him, you’d probably notice. He’s only 4’7″. There are elementary-schoolers taller than him! I know by experience… I’m pretty darn short, and even *I* am taller than him!

Tags: crazy people, Encounters / Observations, fleetwood, funny people, white plains

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