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Yesterday, I went out to Target on my lunch break (one BART stop down from where I work) and, among other things, purchased a chair. One of those new-fangled folding nylon-and-aluminum camping chairs. The chair comes in a large nylon sack, a long, thin, vaguely cylindrical shape, with a large shoulder strap. The same sack could easily be used to carry a rifle, which I assume is what someone was thinking when they called the BART police on me.
So I get off at the Pleasant Hill station, to be met by two police officers. One of them asks me what I have in the bag. I unsling it from my back, point to the large decal on the side that says "Chair" and I answer him, "Chair."
The other cop immediately starts laughing, which seems to annoy the first one. He asks me to open the bag, so I take out the chair and unfold it. To prove that it really is a chair, I then sit down in it. Realizing it has a drink holder in one arm, I tell them that if they'll give me a beer, I'll demonstrate the drink holder as well. I am informed that it will not be necessary. They apologize for the inconvenience, and explain that someone had called them anonymously from one of the other cars to report "a suspicious character" carrying a bag.
The moral of the story is, if you're going to be carrying a rifle on BART, put it in a dufflebag rather than a rifle-sized bag. My duffle could easily hold a few rifles, and I've never been stopped for carrying it on the train.
So I get off at the Pleasant Hill station, to be met by two police officers. One of them asks me what I have in the bag. I unsling it from my back, point to the large decal on the side that says "Chair" and I answer him, "Chair."
The other cop immediately starts laughing, which seems to annoy the first one. He asks me to open the bag, so I take out the chair and unfold it. To prove that it really is a chair, I then sit down in it. Realizing it has a drink holder in one arm, I tell them that if they'll give me a beer, I'll demonstrate the drink holder as well. I am informed that it will not be necessary. They apologize for the inconvenience, and explain that someone had called them anonymously from one of the other cars to report "a suspicious character" carrying a bag.
The moral of the story is, if you're going to be carrying a rifle on BART, put it in a dufflebag rather than a rifle-sized bag. My duffle could easily hold a few rifles, and I've never been stopped for carrying it on the train.
