Followed around at Public Garden for carrying a sports bag!

[Mr_Spock]

This was strange - or was it? Should we be thankful there are people watching out for people carrying sports bags or should I be annoyed? I had a fairly large bag with the kid's clothes/towles/my book etc in it - we originally saw this guy at the swan boats in the Public Garden of Boston. He was a guy in good shape with a strong build, typical cop haircut and eyes scanning downward a lot. No biggie. Then we walked from the PG to the Commons to go wading in the frog pond - there were 4 kids with us so they were having a blast. We found a nice spot to sit and then my mom noticed the same guy was there in the water wading - right in front of us. "He was over at the swan boats" she said "I thought he worked there". I had noticed him as well because he seemed to be looking over frequently and down - it didn't occur to me until later that he was scanning my bag! I replied "yeah, I saw him over at the Public Garden as well and I noticed he's wading in the water near us pretending to watch his kids, but he doesn't have any!". "Homeland Security" I told my mother - she nodded and agreed that it was odd that he seemed to be following us. I then realized that I had seen him at the crossing as well on the way over and that he was looking over and down at me as we waited for the light to change. Kinda creepy now that I think about it. He had the look of law enforcement - I know that look well. His strange behavior simply reenforced my suspicions. I suppose I should be glad that there are people watching out for us - but me? Oh, well - it was a new experience for me - haven't had undercover cops eyeballing me since I was a teenager :rofl:

What do you people here think about this - interesting huh?

[Massacure]

1. Should have called the police and get him investigated for stalking.

At least make those government spies jump through a few hopes.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. when did he stop watching you?

Did he follow you home? Or did he just suddenly go away?

I don't know that I would have been so complacent. I'd fear he was some sort of stalker.

[Mr_Spock]

5. I think we left him at the Frog Pond

He must've figured that he was wasting his time at some point.

This guy had cop written all over him. The way he was dressed, the steroid jaw, the "cop" haircut - he was security all the way. I did think afterward that I should have given him the "Bush salute" secretly - he was looking over almost 50% of the time!! There are other good joke to play on undercover boys, but I was concerned about keeping the kids under control, so I just lost track of him when we left.

[Cassandra]

3. Did he think you were going to attack the swan boats?

The Public Garden is not exactly an enclosed space.

[Mr_Spock]

7. I stuck the bag under the seat in front of me - 20 people or so on a boat

Definitely a possible "captive" group - so it's not unreasonable that they would be watching people.

[jody]

4. What do you think is happening in London? Citizens out of fear will

look for suspicious people. :shrug:

[FreedomAngel82]

12. Well in London earlier this week

there was a story about this guy who was wearing a coat (in the middle of summer?) and the police hollared at him to stop but he ran instead and they shot him. It turned out he didn't have anything and he didn't know English. :eyes:

[jody]

14. Absolutely, but a short time earlier guys with packs killed many! n/t

[manic expression]

15. So harassing EVERYONE with packs is now OK?

Yeah, right.

(spelling error edited)

[jody]

17. No, I didn't say that but I understand how some people might pay

careful attention to those with packs.

If you don't agree, that's OK with me.

Goodbye :hi:

[Pobeka]

6. Not strange. Just doin' his job.

There really are wackos that carry around sports bags with bombs, and they walk into public places.

Sounds like he was as discrete as he could be about it, which served 2 purposes, first to aid in his observations of you, and second to not harass you unnecessarily.

Or, you know, it could just be a coincidence and you read more into it than was really there.

Did he have a big Glock in a shoulder holster? That would've been a give away. ;)

[Mr_Spock]

8. Seeing as he spent 50% of his time looking over his shoulder

at us and the other 50% "pretending" that he was watching kids in a pool where men in their 40's who are wading either have kids or are perverts. ...or was it that I remember him following us from the PG to the Frog Pond?

[mike_c]

9. welcome to the security state, aka police state....

Resistance is futile-- you WILL be assimilated.

[Richard Steele]

13. Indeed!

[pretzel4gore]

10. and alarm clock ductaped to some red candles!

pull that outta your bag and wind up the clock! look very suspicious! haha

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Scary

I'd ask him what he was looking at and if he liked what he saw. ;) Also my mother always told me it wasn't nice to stare at people.

[TroubleMan]

16. I would have went up and talked to him

Just to see the reaction...LOL.

[Mr_Spock]

19. I would have if the kids were behaving better!

I really was thinking "security is nice, but just any old family that has a bag?" I felt it was my duty to find out what he was doing there. He actually sold us our tickets for the Swan boats!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Better check under your bed.

[DS1]

20. I'd say it was more likely he was a thief

Homeland Security in a wading pool?

[wli]

21. it's going to make it a PITA to carry my laptop around

I do have tons of electronics and wiring in there, and some of it wouldn't be recognized (e.g. cat5/de9 modular adapters and flying lead adapters) by laypersons. Generally it's been ignored by airport personnel, though they do search the bag. I suspect even though it's not particularly recognizable they're used to odd but innocent items. I'm not looking forward to sitting around while some paranoid thug raises questions whose answers he doesn't understand for ages while I miss flights or other crucial events. I'm probably going to clean out question-raising stuff despite needing it for the purposes of on-site systems programming -related diagnosis and the like before my next trip even though it's passed security checks before. Bushler's fascist police state is too dangerous to carry around even legitimate tools of one's trade.