What happened on March 1 -- Loony

Okay, so this is my first BART post, and befittingly, it's probably the worst thing that's happened to me on BART yet. Thanks to my pal M, who set this up for me after listening to over 5 years of my BART stories (some long, most short and just weird), I now have a place to vent out my BART frustrations and to share my stories.

Now. What happened on March 1?

I got on the Fremont train at Montgomery and sat at the rear of the first car of the train. At Embarcadero, my sis, D, got on and sat in a bench that was perpendicular to the handicap bench. There was an empty space on the handicap bench, right next to her. After going through the 7-minute tunnel under the bay (yes, it actually takes about 7 minutes to go across the bay) and stopping at West Oakland, I moved to sit next to her. After a few minutes of talking, I noticed a lady walking toward the end of the car. She stopped 4 rows behind by sis and started ranting at a man who was listening to music. His face dripped of annoyance and apprehension. Do you just ignore her in hopes she goes away? Do you respond? See, as a BART rider, you must make these quick judgments.

This is where I made my fatal flaw.

I made eye contact with her.

This is something you never do if you're uncertain of the person's mental capacity. This is something you just need to learn. I know this, but I made the mistake regardless.

I was sitting facing the side of the BART car, with a book on my lap. The lady made her way down the aisle and stopped in front of me. She was close enough so that if I stood up, we'd be about an inch apart. She points to my book and screams, "You shouldn't be doing that in public! You should keep that to yourself!!!," like I'm doing something extremely wrong (imagine your own wrong-doings for public viewing). I looked at her, and I'm thinking, okay, now...do I react? Do I ignore? If I ignore, will she go away or just stand there yelling at me? Obviously this lady was a loon; she reeked of alcohol, had a weathered face, and looked like she's been through hell and back.

I decided to ignore.

She continued to the back of the train and sat down next to a man that was reading. She was, in fact, on the bench that was directly behind the bench I was originally sitting on. She was sitting really close the man, with her hand over her mouth, looking at me and whispering something to him. The man looked freaked out, as you can imagine. My sis and I continue to talk. I tell her that I've always been meaning to program the BART police number in my cell phone, and after this incident, I think I'll be doing that. Then I laugh. Then I stare off into space.

Next thing I know, my sis is yelling, "Don't you touch her!" and I feel a hand on my neck.

My first thought was, 'Now, why is my sis lunging over me and saying this?' Then my second thought was, 'Uh, someone's choking me...."

And then it was over.

The loon of a lady was standing next to the bench, screaming at me about how I'm talking about her, and I better stop, and that I'm standing outside her house all the time talking about her and how bad that is.

My sis is shaking, she looks ready to cry, and tells me, "She just choked you!"

I say loudly to anyone, "Can someone please call the BART operator and tell him to call the police???"

A side note about BART rider mentality -- unless it's affecting you, you are unlikely to come to someone else's assistance. Now, because of this, my chances were pretty slim to none that anyone would call. I didn't want to risk moving since I had no idea if this lady would attack me or not, and I really didn't like the idea of leaving my sis in case the lady tried attacking her too, so I just kinda stared at everyone. Staring worked, and one lady (yes --- lady, not man, mind you) got up and called the BART operator. The loon of a lady turned on her for a bit, and in the meantime, I tried to calm my sister down. At the next stop, the lady got off but not before telling me that I murder kids and keep them in light fixtures. Yes, that's me. How did she ever find out?

This all happened in about a two-minute time frame.

One man sitting near me had the nerve to ask me if I knew her. I will admit, how she was screaming at me would lead someone to think I did know her, but come on. Give me some credit I was dressed nice for work that day!

Anyway, long story short and less interesting that the above, I was 3 hours late getting home because I had to go back to Oakland to identify her and give a police report.

To top off the whole experience, the cop positioned me by a pole outside the BART station, so I was far enough away to be able to clearly identify the lady when being brought out, but not close enough for her to do anything to me. So it was taking a bit of time, and I was leaning against the pole, waiting. Suddenly, I felt something plop! on my right shoulder. Before I looked, I just knew what it was because that's just how my life is sometimes, but why did it have to be so brown and green and gross??? A bird pooped on me. My husband was with me at this time (moral support but mainly protection), and I turned to him quickly (I was still waiting for the cop to bring the loon out) and said, "Can you believe this? Look!," and then I quickly took my jacket off because I really didn't want to stand there waiting for the loon with bird poop on my shoulder.

Yes, March 1 was my day.

And yes, the BART police number is now programed into my cell phone. I highly suggest you do the same.