News & Politics - Rude man gets whupped by 2 elderly men after cursing on cell phone in bagel shop.

JediBlastoise · 07-18-2004, 03:14 AM

Well, that'll teach people these days to have more respect for the people around them.
linky

Quote:

Cursing on cell phone starts bagel-shop bruhaha

BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED

ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

ST. PAUL - The cell phone age is a tough time to be a Good Samaritan.

Lunch at a St. Paul bagel shop turned into a tussle over a cellular phone when two 70-something citizens tried to teach a younger man a lesson in civility Thursday.

All three ended up with citations for disorderly conduct.

Bill Stevenson, 79, and Sten Gerfast, 74, both retired 3M employees, were eating at the Sun Ray Shopping Center Bruegger's Bagels when they heard a man cursing loudly on his cell phone, they said Friday.

"You know, there were about 15 people in there and some children and this person, if he stood in the corner and talked in his cell phone, that would be one thing, but he actually walked among the tables, pacing and talking loudly and you could tell he annoyed a lot of people," said Gerfast, of Mendota Heights.

After hearing the obscenities, Gerfast said he approached the man and said, "Would you mind, sir, to go outside and take your call?"

He was met with a round of obscenities, according to a police report, that would have made Vice President Dick Cheney blush.

"This guy unleashed on Sten with the worst vocabulary I've ever heard in my life and this was not in a bar, this was in a bagel place," said Stevenson, of Lake Elmo.

Stevenson went up to the man, identified by police as Jesse Tabor, 40, of St. Paul, and "tried to grab the phone he was using from his ear," he said.

"The tussle lasted maybe 45 seconds," Stevenson said. "No one threw a punch or anything." But Stevenson said his glasses fell off when he was trying to get the phone, and food was spilled when he accidentally knocked a table over.

Tabor, who couldn't be reached for comment, told police he was there with his daughter and talking to a contractor on his cell phone. He told police that after Gerfast approached him, they began to argue and Stevenson "jumped him from behind" and he was taken down to the floor, where his arm was scraped and his cell phone was damaged, said St. Paul police officer Paul Schnell, department spokesman.

A witness said all three men were "out of control," Schnell said, but Gerfast and Stevenson dispute that.

Gerfast said he didn't do anything physical. Stevenson said Tabor ended up with the phone.

A Bruegger's Bagels manager declined to comment.

St. Paul police arrived and all three men received citations for disorderly conduct.

Credit the fracas, perhaps, to the decline in civility the cell phone has wrought.

"The mobile phone accelerates that decline because it increases the trend of indulging in public pleasure at the price of public civility," said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

And the public is becoming less vocal in its objections, as users become more vocal in their use of cell phones, Katz said.

Stevenson said he wasn't happy with what happened.

"I don't think I accomplished anything," he said.

ros2nz · 07-18-2004, 10:12 AM

Good for the seniors!

secret boyfriend · 07-18-2004, 11:09 AM

i hope i still have the energy to kick butt like that when i'm old.

migamoo · 07-18-2004, 11:31 AM

my favorite part of the article? He was met with a round of obscenities, according to a police report, that would have made Vice President Dick Cheney blush. That was just too funny. But I agree with the two men. If someone is using a cell phone in public, they don't need to speak so loud that a whole store can hear them.

Ashley

sick little jag · 07-18-2004, 04:49 PM

i think that the two men were perfectly justifiable in asking him to step outside if he was going to be speaking so loudly, but to try and grab the phone from his ear? that's really rude. i don't care how many obscenities he was using or how loud he was talking...that is trumped by them grabbing to take the phone from him.

MalloryKeaton · 07-18-2004, 10:39 PM

The guy should have not been using that type of language to begin with. I think the two older adults had every right to ask him to go outside. And to think his daughter, was there. Doesn't he have any decency?

*Lauren · 07-18-2004, 10:42 PM

They had the right to ask him to go outside. Where they crossed the line was when they physically assulted him, by trying to grab the phone.

Personally, I don't see a problem with swearing. I don't do it often myself, but the way its treated is laughable.

mh67511 · 07-19-2004, 12:57 AM

I like it when people call others out. I think it's rude to be pacing around swearing in a shop full of people. Although personally I would have stuck my foot out and tripped the guy. THey should have just gone to the manager and complained and he should have kicked the guy out.

But I think knocking the phone out was pretty funny.

Maybe from now on we can follow the people around and scream in their face. There's got to be SOMETHING we can do to get these annoying people to learn to shut up.

*Lauren · 07-19-2004, 07:11 AM

Well, then you're just as rude as that guy was. You do that, you'll get smashed in the face.

mh67511 · 07-19-2004, 10:25 AM

Well what are we supposed to do? They asked him to leave and he cursed them out. Should we just let the jerk win?

Cell phones should have little things embedded in them that shock people when they start talking too loud in them.

*~*Sparkle*~* · 07-19-2004, 02:21 PM

I think those two eldery men had the right idea in mind, but I would have gone to the manager after the man finished with his stream of expletives.

Cell phones annoy me to no end. I don't speak for everyone here, but when I have a telephone conversation I like my privacy.

I was eating lunch in a restaurant yesterday and had to listen to three different people hunting for ringing cell phones. I often wonder how people lived without cell phones. What happened to the care free days of taking a solo walk in peace? I don't like the idea of being able to be contacted at any place and any time.

Chelsea

vc318 · 07-19-2004, 03:50 PM

Attack from seniors. What is this world coming to?!

SuperDeluxe · 07-20-2004, 08:38 AM

Go Grandpa GO Grandpa go!

imajica · 07-20-2004, 06:05 PM

Good on them, i'm sick of people who think that everyone else wants to hear their conversations. I have a phone that I have to answer for work pretty much wherever I am but I still try and be considerate of people around and keep my voice down or go outside.

Galaxia21 · 07-21-2004, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by *Lauren
Well, then you're just as rude as that guy was. You do that, you'll get smashed in the face.

Well if she's a girl and trips him and then he smashes her in the face, um, think he's going to go to jail for assault because I a man can't just punch a women in the face.

I don't think the guy should have grabbed the phone from his ear but they had every right to ask him to leave. And that is very rude to cuss them out in a public place right there in front of his daughter. Good way to show her how to live your life. My parents taught me to respect my elders and that whenever you're in a public place you do not raise your voice and cuss where everyone can hear you.. I wonder what that girl is being taught??

If I were the old men I would have cussed the dude out and then went and told the manager.

One part I didn't get: the whole thing with Dick Cheny.. what is he supposed to cuss a lot or something?


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