Folks, I’ve been staring at this yarn for the past 20-odd minutes and I cannot, for the life of me, see any problem worthy of a bleedin’ fine.
An industrious bloke in Queensland has been slapped with an infringement notice after he tried to shift a fridge from one place to another using the inner-Brisbane rail system as a means of transportation.
Back in April the bloke was captured on CCTV footage wheeling the full-size fridge, on a hand truck, into the elevator on a rail overpass at Bowen Hills Station, down onto the train platform, and onto a train carriage. Queensland Rail security then intercepts the man, pulls him back off the train carriage, and hits him with the fine for “bringing an oversized item onto a train.” Come on.
Additional footage shows another man trying to shift a couch via the rail network, doing an impressive job of a) flipping it end-over-end along the platform by himself, and b) have the wherewithal to temporarily leave his new lounge item in order to source a nearby shopping trolley as a transporter.
Today’s #TrainEtiquetteTuesday is a simple one: please book a removalist ?? pic.twitter.com/Cp2YwhOfl6
— Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) July 11, 2017
Queensland Rail spokesperson Justine Scarff stated that the train system was absolutely not to be used for oversized items like that, and that the organisation urges people thinking about doing something similar to “book a removalist.”
“We obviously need to be mindful of other people travelling; trains are for people, they aren’t for fridges and couches unfortunately.”
“I hope he decided to book a removalist as we would encourage people to do, or call up one of his mates with a ute.”
That’s fine. That’s all well and good. But sometimes you can’t afford a removalist, and you don’t have a mate with an available ute. That shouldn’t preclude you from buying a fridge if you need one.
Look at the footage. That’s clearly middle of the day; non-peak times, very few people using public transport. Old mate even moves the fridge up to the very front door of the train. That’s considerate behaviour. The bloke’s looking out for his fellow passengers. And instead of applauding him for his ingenuity (you fucking well trying rolling a fridge into an elevator by yourself) you’re slapping him with a fine? Outrageous.
The man is a hero. A testament to the get-shit-done no-fuss attitude of the common Australian.
Sure, he also got fined for fare evading. But who’s got time to tap on when there’s beers without a fridge at home slowly getting warm?
Fun police. They’re bloody everywhere these days, I tell you.
Source: ABC News.
Photo: Chris O’Brien/Twitter.
