a tale
This story is hard to believe, but trust me, it's true.
I was in the Park Street T station today waiting for the redline train to arrive. As usual, there was a guy playing a guitar down there. He was playing "Knocking on Heaven's Door", to be precise. And apparently (I didn't see this part but heard other people talk about it) a guy from across the tracks really liked this guitarist's rendition of the song and wanted to give him a tip. So he made a dollar bill into a paper airplane and threw it across the tracks, but of course the plane didn't reach the other side. Then, in an act of amazing stupidity, the guy jumped down onto the tracks and fell across the third rail and the track. (this I witnessed with my own eyes, literally right in front of me on the track. I had my camera but didn't take a picture, nor did I help. What could I do? My mind was blank) I'm not sure what happened to him, but I think he must've had a bit of a shock. He stumbled and had trouble getting up off of the third rail. People were screaming at him to get away from it and for others to help him out of the tracks. All the while, he picked himself up, stumbled around, and retrieved the dollar to give it to the guitarist. Then, he stumbled back to the other side and tried to climb back up BY STEPPING ON THE THIRD RAIL! He made it up with the help of a few other people and then walked away in a state of confusion, limping. Never before have I seen such a crazy, idiotic stunt. Apparently the man was pretty scratched and bruised, and he is very lucky that he didn't jump down there before a train arrived because he would've been a goner. The image of him writhing on the third and second rails is still in my head. It was unbelievable, and all I could do was stare....that's how unbelievable it was.
It caused a 15 minute delay as the MBTA inspected the area and went to look for the man. I'm sure there is some penalty (besides potential death) for doing something stupid like he did.
Well, that's the story, told in my dull, verbose way.