A Woman Of No Sense At Mariatorget

Duh...

Seen anyone do anything stupid lately? How about a woman taking a shopping cart onto the platform of a subway station. It boggles the mind.

As I entered Mariatorget Station this morning I was greeted by the familiar loud speaker system belting out some sort of indistinguishable message. I tend to ignore these things, because unless they are telling me that the platform is on fire and I should exit the building, they tend to be of the "such and such train is late, the estimated time of arrival is never o' clock" variety. But, today's was different.

"An announcement for passengers at Mariatorget. Would the person who brought a shopping cart with them onto the platform please refrain from taking it on the subway. Kindly leave it on the platform. Thank you."Seriously?

Sure enough, when I got down onto the platform there she was, Netto shopping cart and all. Disgruntingly she was leaving it behind, not surprisingly right in front of the escalators. Her two mammoth Netto bags, bulging with what was obviously not food for thought, perched dangerously at the edge of the platform. I know what you're thinking, but no, she did have a home and was obviously trying to get to it in the most convenient method. According to whatever fluff was in her skull.

Did she really intend to take the cart onto the train? What on earth is that about? If you are reduced to this type of behavior isn't it time to buy a car?

This type of thing always makes me question someone's logic or at least their common sense. (Or lack of both.) I mean, there had to be a moment at some point where she hesitated and questioned whether or not it was a wise decision to try and take a shopping cart onto a subway train. But, apparantely, that part of her brain (the one that most of us have that would have said, "Ummm...no.") was on a coffee break or on a permanent leave of absense.

I also have to question whether or not this type of thing could even occur on any other subway network in the world. In most places you wouldn't be able to get past the ticket area. In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how she managed to do it here. But then again there is no security presense in most stations here in Stockholm and the people who man the ticket booth haven't really got the ability to stop this type of stupidity (since they're in an enclosed booth). They can't stop people from not paying for that matter.

And last but not least, on the "I'm dumbstruck by this" list. The closest Netto to Mariatorget is like 10 blocks away.

Amazing.

K. Panda