h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was just interviewed under caution.

Here's what transpired.

So, as I arrive home on the train get out of my seat kindly ask the conductor to step to one side and deposit my used ticket stubs in the bin step out onto the platform and proceed down some steps and the subterranean passage to the other side

That's when I encountered the ad-hoc ticket inspection.

Identifying myself as not having a ticket, I was pulled to one side by a 'revenue protection officer' and after identifying myself and proving my identify, the interview began in earnest.

I put it to you that it was you intention to travel without paying the fare.
No. Quiet the reverse: I bought and paid for a ticket and intended to travel on it. I just can't produce the ticket. Moreover I can prove it: I paid by debit card this morning at the ticket machine in the foyer, there will be a record of my financial transaction that will establish I am telling the truth and purchased as ticket today, just as I did yesterday and every preceding day.

Why not where is the ticket now?
In the bin in the rear carriage on the train heading to Nottingham.

Did you see any posters saying you could travel without a ticket.
No.

Was the ticket office open at your departure station?
I can't say for certain, I presume so. Sheffield has two entrances - I entered the one that doesn't take you past the ticket office, in any case I had - stress on the past tense - a valid ticket so why would I walk to the other side of the station to buy something I already had?

There were a few more questions, but you get the gist.



I signed and dated my statement and was informed I'd be contacted.

Knowing precisely why I had fallen into the snare, but also that I have done absolutely nothing wrong and can prove it, I said as I left "Thank you, good luck catching the real thieves."

Now in retrospect this was silly, best policy keep your trap shut.

However I meant it. I was by definition not a thief, though I was suffering from a deficit of evidence at that moment in time, (a matter of seconds previously I had been slotting my used tickets through the slotted flap of the rubbish bin) so good luck in catching the ones who are really swindling the train company. Seems self-evidently reasonable and I was in a good mood in spite of it all.

I'd barely halfway ascended the flight of stairs out of the tunnel when I was swooped upon by the station manager who told me not to be so glib to his staff. I was, I admit rather taken aback. I wasn't being glib nor sarcastic. I had but for a matter of moments prior been a fare-paying ticket purchasing passenger.

I didn't see the harm in wish good luck to those attempting to catch those who are not, though I had become unwittingly ensnared in the same trap.

Family don't see my point of view at all. Think I'm thoughtless and rude and various other unattractive epithets.

I'm starting to think I just don't get along with people.

-----------------

Anyway, if I've cause to be a little annoyed about this it's because before disposing of my tickets, I had to ask the conductor to stand out of the way of the bin, which rather suggests that none of the train-bound staff new the ad-hoc ticket inspection was in progress.

That puts the lie to the further thought that such checks are usually announced on the train just prior to arrival ('please retain and be ready to present all tickets and travel documents a ticket check is in operation at this station') is the usual patter.

Had such an announcement of been made, I wouldn't have disposed of my tickets 30 seconds before being asked to produce them.

So I don't see this going anywhere, I'm totally in the clear and I know it.

So why do I feel so irritated by the whole unseemly mess?

IMO, you demonstrated admirable restraint. I blush to admit I would very likely have responded much less politely.

Never apologize for being wrongly accused.

Thanks Tal.

My one and only positive feedback.

Good grief, Clive. I hope they don't take it any further.

I sympathise entirely - I've sometimes been rude to over-officious staff. I guess they have to put up with a lot of nonsense from drunks, etc, so they're geared up to treating passengers like yobboes. They're also low-paid, so don't get any real job satisfaction.

Down south, you have to keep your ticket to put through the automatic barriers to get you out of the station, so we wouldn't throw it away - I guess you'll have those up north soon. At least it would stop this kind of Stasi-inspired hit-squad mentality.

Thanks Icy, I think they'll take it as far as asking me to produce the evidence of my purchase, which I can do so. I did rather cheekily suggest that if they wanted to be really thorough they should dispatch someone to Nottingham to intercept the bin upon arrival. And to be fair I wasn't carrying a ticket when approach, so though wrongly accused I was appropriately filtered and the train company is within it's right's to check etc.

I think my own stumbling block is I was treating the whole interview with what I think was good humour, if anything it was amusing to me that I could be so identified despite having done the very thing they were asking me to do, but for the lack of evidence of having done so so then to wind up in this pickle of appearing rude and sarcastic just dumbfounds me.

Sarcasm would have been "oh good job luv, do I look like a fare dodger?"
Arrogant would have been: "There's nothing you can say or do to me, I purchased my ticket and it was checked on the journey and I'm within my rights to dispose of it as I wish and I'll see you in court!"
Glib would have been: "Do your worst."

See to my mind intent counts I was wishing her good luck and subtracting myself from those whom she was meant to find. People can be so fragile and words so misappropriated. How can I be sarcastic when I was not intending to be. It's the difference between appearing to be something and being it.

I think I did catch them at a low ebb, it was latish in the afternoon and they've probably had an awful day, and there were plenty of people being turned back swearing and etc., as I was being processed you the words 'tether','end' 'of' spring rapidly to mind.

But I do take umbrage at being accused - twice - of doing something I didn't do, fare dodge or insult the person tasked with interviewing me for the eminently reasonable justification that I didn't have the blessed ticket when she asked.

Ever since the IRA there are no bins on stations. The nearest bin once you get beyond the car-park is in the town centre. And as I was catching a lift, and the bin on the train was my last option, and there'd been no announcement that I should retain my ticket so I didn't.

If it comes to having explain it to someone all again I will do so.

What disturbs me more if this willingness to believe the worst of people My protestations that I wasn't being glib were addressed to the managers back as he walked away from me chastisement delivered.

Unfortunately, sarcasm and such is in the ear of the belistener

RJR version..............

I know your mother...................

Not so sure of that myself Mrs P.


Suppose that we all agreed to comport ourselves in order to avoid offending one and other? How could we ever be sure that we had taken enough precautions? I speculate that those who are determined to be "offended" will discover a provocation somewhere. I do not believe my remarks were anything other than good humoured and it is to their detriment not mine that they were so thin-skinned and bereft as to not see the funny side and over-reacted in the way they did. (The station manager feels the need to stride over to tell me off when 5 minutes previously the staff to my back were being liberally told to go forth and multiply? - come on!)

Anyhow - thank you all for visiting my journal.

Next time I'll have something nice to comment on, hopefully.

I'd have found it very hard not to punch the station manager.... or at least accidentally* trip him over then fall on to him
Strnage thing is... no one ever* looks at my rail ticket, I always get passed* through the bariers, I travel without showing a ticket on the underground... ... yet I always* buy a ticket... well not for the underground natch but for rail overground I do

Clive mon amour, I truly hope that this doesn't happen again, but if it does, refuse to say anything other than to ask for the duty solicitor. If you are to be interviewed UNDER CAUTION whether by British Transport Police or the local constabulary you are entitled to have a solicitor present at NO COST to yourself.

if you were interviewed under caution, was a recording made, in accordance with pace??

did the interviewer identify themselves properly

did they read you your rights

were you shown any identification

and remember the onus of proof is with them and not you

no comment is your friend

they must prove beyond reasonable doubt that you commited a crime

the answer check the debit records should suffice

was a recording made, in accordance with pace??
In writing in my presence.

did the interviewer identify themselves properly
They flashed a bade at me name and "revenue protectino officer...I am interviewing you under caution" ....

did they read you your rights

I don't recall. I don't think so.

were you shown any identification
Yes.


and remember the onus of proof is with them and not you
True. I explained clearly where my ticket was, and if they were feeling industrious enough exactly where to retrieve it.


no comment is your friend
Most of the questions were a bit facetious, bordering on the sarcastic: Did I see any posters saying I could travel for free without a ticket? (No, of course not - they don't exist besides I had a ticket.) / Was the ticket office closed when you were at the station? (Sheffield has two entrances, as I said, one from the tram and one from the street level. I was coming from college walking alongside the tram lines and came into the station at the very furthest from the ticket office, I already had a ticket so went straight to the platform where I knew the train would be waiting.)

they must prove beyond reasonable doubt that you commited a crime
I provided a reasonable explanation for my failure to produce a ticket, explained coherently several times where that ticket was.

the answer check the debit records should suffice
I was giving it a day or two for the hsbc online banking to catchup , I was going to look at it tonight and see if I can spot my payment.

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who was that mysterious masked man?

Me didn't do it! Was it you Clive?

so we cant call them the railway nazis???????

I suppose not.

clive i wasn't asking detailed questions i was commenting rhetorically

carry on as normal and next time it happens just remember, some of my notes

you are supposed to be diven a copy of the recorded interview, did you get one??

if they are going to be railway jobsworths, b*gger them about by making them jump through all the legal hoops, in the end it will cost them more than they are saving and thats where the rub is!!

Was post 14 you then Taff?

I did not get a copy no, it was being hand written into a flip notebook.

I guess we'll see what happens when they phone me up.