I'll explain as briefly as possible.
We were on the tube coming back from a post match evening in Covent Garden last night.
A man opposite was dark looking and had a black baseball cap, hoody and very dark sunglasses ... a bit weird at night we thought but nothing more.
He then opens his little rucksack and roots around inside. He pulls out a mobile phone with what looked like a charger cable attached with a rubber band holding it all together.
My son texted a smily face and 'terrorist' for a laugh.
At the next stop a lookalike gets on and they sit next to each other and start talking in an Arabic sounding language but quite sharply, not many smiles. We started to feel uneasy and my son texted 'perhaps I was right, they're not happy lads' but we laughed it off. I worked for Arab royal family so have a bit of experience.
At the next stop on the first one gets up and leaves the little rucksack on the seat next to the other one which really was a bit weird as he hadn't handed it to him or anything.
I shouted 'excuse me you've left your bag' half Politely and half because it looked suspicious ... at which point he gets off the platform and back on the train. He starts shouting at us, in English, that it's none of our business. His mate joins in but we'd been in 'Wembley mode' for two days and knackered tbh. He now decides to sit down again and the train pulls off.
So I ask him what's in the bag at which point they start screaming about stereotyping and racial discrimination. It was our stop next so I snapped a quick photo, as I was pretending to make a call. We got outside and found a policeman. We explained, showed him the photo and he asked us to send it to his mobile which we did. He radioed it through to the British Transport Police at the next stops. Fair play because we'd had a drink and he could've just told us to be good lads and go home.
He advised us to delete the photo but took our details which we were happy to do then gave us his.
So, my question is ... do I have the right to challenge dodgy looking people or not and am I now a racist like Father Ted?
We were on the tube coming back from a post match evening in Covent Garden last night.
A man opposite was dark looking and had a black baseball cap, hoody and very dark sunglasses ... a bit weird at night we thought but nothing more.
He then opens his little rucksack and roots around inside. He pulls out a mobile phone with what looked like a charger cable attached with a rubber band holding it all together.
My son texted a smily face and 'terrorist' for a laugh.
At the next stop a lookalike gets on and they sit next to each other and start talking in an Arabic sounding language but quite sharply, not many smiles. We started to feel uneasy and my son texted 'perhaps I was right, they're not happy lads' but we laughed it off. I worked for Arab royal family so have a bit of experience.
At the next stop on the first one gets up and leaves the little rucksack on the seat next to the other one which really was a bit weird as he hadn't handed it to him or anything.
I shouted 'excuse me you've left your bag' half Politely and half because it looked suspicious ... at which point he gets off the platform and back on the train. He starts shouting at us, in English, that it's none of our business. His mate joins in but we'd been in 'Wembley mode' for two days and knackered tbh. He now decides to sit down again and the train pulls off.
So I ask him what's in the bag at which point they start screaming about stereotyping and racial discrimination. It was our stop next so I snapped a quick photo, as I was pretending to make a call. We got outside and found a policeman. We explained, showed him the photo and he asked us to send it to his mobile which we did. He radioed it through to the British Transport Police at the next stops. Fair play because we'd had a drink and he could've just told us to be good lads and go home.
He advised us to delete the photo but took our details which we were happy to do then gave us his.
So, my question is ... do I have the right to challenge dodgy looking people or not and am I now a racist like Father Ted?
