Thursday, August 18, 2011

Anoyone Seen the Yellow Line Spitter?



From Repulsed Rider:
Have you had any reports about the Yellow Line Spitter?

There is a woman who my colleagues and I see all the time on the Yellow Line in the mornings.

She rides from Mt. Vernon to Pentagon City around 8 and constantly snorts, clears her throat, hocks up loogies, sticks her finger in her mouth to get them, and them flicks them on the wall of the car.

She always sits in the last car near the back on the right side.

People get up and move to the other end of the car when they see her, and she gets more dirty looks than you can imagine, but she's always seemingly oblivious and often engrossed in a crossword puzzle.

When she leaves, there is snot all down the wall by her seat.

We've started calling her the Yellow Line Spitter for lack of a better name.

It's really repulsive, but I guess we're all too polite to say something to her, and/or morbidly fascinated that someone would do something like that.

Just curious if you've heard other people talk about her.

Sadly, I know her by face now, so I know when to find another seat.
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Comments (31)

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Has no one reported her to WMATA police?
Honestly - do you think the WMATA police - or anyone else "working" for Metro - has time to spare for someone making it unpleasant for passengers?
1 reply · active 709 weeks ago
No...they don't seem to care about most problems. It's clear that for most of them, it's a 'run out the clock' situation and they know that they'll never be in danger of losing their job for not doing it competently.

But this isn't someone merely making things unpleasant for other riders like a parent who lets their kids run around screaming, or someone who risks the train offloading because they're too impatient to wait for the next train. This is a health issue and needs to be dealt with. If this woman is a repeat offender, people need to take pictures and report her. If she's on the same trains around the same time every day, catching her should be a little easier.
This article almost made me vomit. Thanks, unsuck.

Unsuck my digestive system.blogspot.com
K. Thornton's avatar

K. Thornton · 709 weeks ago

F'nJD I agree with your call the WMATA Police and when people see her doing it as soon as they get to work email, email, email metro. I know a lot of folks don't think they will answer but i have emailed them before and always get a prompt response.
Soylent Green Line's avatar

Soylent Green Line · 709 weeks ago

Good God. Thankfully I board the center of the train to make it easier to transfer at L'Enfant in the mornings, but I'm a daily yellow/green line rider from Mt. Vernon and I've never had the misfortune of running across this particular woman.
I hope all the people who eat on the Metro see this article or this passenger. I think that spitting (especially of this nature) could be addressed by the WMATA police, especially if it's habitual.

Perhaps someone should offer her a small pack of kleenex and say, "Would you please use these instead of flicking your phlegm at the wall? It is very unpleasant and unsanitary." Maybe if she knew that she had been noticed, the behavior would stop?
UnSuck Fan's avatar

UnSuck Fan · 709 weeks ago

Anyone not completely grossed out to take a picture for (1) UnSuck's Hall of Shame and (2) so other Yellow Line riders and avoid her like the plague?!
RedLineROFL's avatar

RedLineROFL · 709 weeks ago

THE HORROR! Actually doing crosswords? 3 down - rhymes with Gem, often multi-colored, slimy, sticks to walls....
Maybe she should meet the guy that licks the windows.
1 reply · active 709 weeks ago
Thanks for the laugh. I'm glad this woman isn't the Green/Red Line Spitter or else they'd have a whole lotta puke to clean up, too.
RLSpitterWitness's avatar

RLSpitterWitness · 709 weeks ago

I've seen the red line spitter/demon woman... and to add some context.... she cleared the entire train of people; one metro employee boarded, stared, and then left; one woman grabbed her child and ran from the train when she came in their direction... It was a lot worse than the video I captured... (video one: hocking up flem/demon coughing/ruining the seats) (video 2: facial identification)

Just another day in the tubes...
www.youtube.com/unsuckvideo
7 replies · active 709 weeks ago
"Thanks" for this :/

You can embed video directly.

Who needs help more: The woman in the video, the people forced to witness it firsthand, or myself? (I knew it would make me sick, but I watched it anyway.)
Soylent Green Line's avatar

Soylent Green Line · 709 weeks ago

IT'S THE CAT LADY FROM THE SIMPSONS!
RLSpitterWitness 's avatar

RLSpitterWitness · 709 weeks ago

I was getting an error message when I tried to embed the 2 videos...

This happened from Metro Center to Friendship Heights. She was hacking at the windows for most of the ride and then ducked behind the seats when I started shooting.

Is she the same person as the Yellow Line Spitter? Or are there multiple spit threats in the system?
You need to link to the full YouTube URL, not the shortened one. Learned that today.
I just died a little inside.
Dear lord. I think calling in a priest to perform an exorcism would be the right call here...not the police....
Wow, that was horrible. I feel really bad for her. :-(
1 reply · active 709 weeks ago
I do, too, Erin. She looks like a homeless person and she's probably mentally ill. I have to say to myself that as nasty as that video is, and there's no question that it is gross and I wouldn't want to be sitting anywhere near her, there but for the grace of God go I.....
hrh king friday 13's avatar

hrh king friday 13 · 709 weeks ago

grossssssss
Spitting on the metro is just as illegal as drinking water on it, and the police take that seriously.
I'd like to thank the Reagan administration for turning these people out of mental hospitals and onto the Metro.
2 replies · active 709 weeks ago
No, it happened during the 80s, but it wasn't due to some policy of the Reagan administration - the federal government doesn't run most of the mental facilities. Rather, it was the Liberals the "civil rights" activists who pressured state and local governments to start giving mental patients more "rights," recognize their right to refuse treatment, live independently, etc. These folks view it as a victory of mental patients go off their meds and start misbehaving in public.
Umm, no.

Just like the GOP of today, the GOP of the 80s was all about cutting services to those who need help the most because it will help the bottom line of their corporate friends.
http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thoma...
I saw this on the floor of a redline train back in March:

[IMG ]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb171/gu03alum/IMG00422.jpg[/IMG]
1 reply · active 709 weeks ago
Sorry, I thought that would embed the photo. Here is the link:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb171/gu03alum...

It's a picture of a whole puddle of lugies that I saw while riding the train that day. My 3 year old daughter almost stepped in it. Maybe I should have put her in a stroller. ;)
Anti-TB Guy's avatar

Anti-TB Guy · 709 weeks ago

What if she's got TUBERCULOSIS? Seems to me the Health Department needs to be involved in this situation... It's more than just gross.
I hope she was not a former metro employee. I have heard how they treat their employees. She needs help.

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