A man in Philadelphia decided he’d had enough with listening to his fellow bus passengers blab away on their cellphones. But instead of buying himself some noise-cancelling headphones or politely asking people to pipe down, he chose to fight back with a handheld device that jams their signals.
“I guess I’m taking the law into my own hands,” he told NBC10, which caught him red-handed with the illegal jammer, “and quite frankly, I’m proud of it.”
Those who ride the bus with the man say he should be ashamed, not proud.
“How dare you decide that I can’t speak to somebody or I can’t use my cellphone?” asks one passenger who spotted the man using the jammer on her way to work. “He’s blatantly holding this device that looks like a walkie-talkie with four very thick antennae. I started to watch him and any time somebody started talking on the phone, he would start pressing the button on the side of the device.”
Experts tell NBC10 that there is a good reason the FCC has made it illegal to jam cellphone signals: “With cellphone jammers you are limiting all types of communication tools that use the radio frequencies. You have the potential to cause a public safety disaster. Cutting off communication by not only our public officials to their dispatch centers but also cutting off the public’s communication to 911 can be a dangerous thing.”
When confronted by a reporter about the illegality of the device, the jamming gent said he believed it was “more of a gray area,” but hours later contacted NBC10 to say that after further research he would get rid of the jammer.
View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.
Rider Jams Cell Phones on Septa Bus [NBCphiladelphia.com]
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Why can’t he be a hero and a jerk? He’s both to me.
“How dare you decide that I can’t speak to somebody or I can’t use my cellphone?”
How dare they decide that I have to listen to it. Go for him.
How dare you impose your will upon others? Jeez, I will never understand the bullying, entitled attitude of people who think they can control everyone else.
Your trapped on a bus. It’s not like you can just move away. That’s the justification. There is science behind just how invasive hearing half a conversation is.
I see it like this: I support everyone’s rights and liberties until they begin to infringe on MY rights and liberties.
And you think the person intruding on civil liberties here is the one talking and not the one with the fucking cell phone jammer, which disrupts everyone’s phones. Do the world a favor and remove yourself from polite society.
It seems I already have. As soon as you can tell me where polite socienty is, I’ll move TO it.
everybody pipedown!
I have one. I use it 3 places: at the store, when the person in front of me is on the phone instead of answering the questions asked by the clerk (take the phone away from your ear and pay attention); in the theatre, whenever somebody answers a call during a movie and remains seated (take it outside, douche); on election day, when somebody tries to stay on the phone while they are actually in the voting booth (illegal).
If only 1 person in the world can save a life VIA PHONE, then Mr Darwin is on your voice-mail right now
I gotta get me one of these, would be the perfect accessory to take to the movies! Since they lowered rating of movies to PG13 and very few are now rated R I’m stuck watching movies with a bunch of tweens and teens that have no respect.
I’m the wife of a US service member who was very recently deployed to Afghanistan. People like me live by our phones. I always but it on silent, on dim, and left the table/theater/etc. whenever his call came in.
He was ultimately seriously injured, news which usually comes in BY PHONE. Don’t get one of these things. You could really be fucking with people’s lives.
There are established limits on freedom of speech.
When your freedoms infringe upon mine, do i have the right to demand/ask that you cease and desist infringing upon my freedoms? When that doesn’t work, then, we get the government, involved; That’s generally when everyone else will suffer because we couldn’t be adults and respect each other, so authority had to force us to.
When your freedoms infringe upon mine, do i have the right to demand/ask that you cease and desist infringing upon my freedoms? When that doesn’t work, then, we get the government, involved; That’s generally when everyone else will suffer because we couldn’t be adults and respect each other, so authority had to force us to.
Cell-phones should have to recognize a low-power signal on a certain frequency and respond by not allowing calls except to local emergency numbers.
That would allow schools, restaurants, theatres, and other venues to install such a transmitter so people don’t have to put up with obnoxious beasts.
There could be different frequencies for:
no voice or text
no voice, texting allowed
no voice, incoming texts only
Such transmitters are cheap (they’re often used by real estate agents so people can listen to recorded pitches about a house without having to get out of their car).
This guy is actually making Philly a safer place to ride the bus. Anyone remember that story from last year where a Philly bus got shot up by the friend’s of some lady who couldn’t keep her child under control on the bus? She used her cell phone to tell them to attack the bus and its passengers. I don’t blame this guy at all for using this device.
There are always life-important reasons why someone has their cell phone with them at all times, under the assumption it is going to work. Mine was having a husband deployed to Afghanistan. I was a very polite user- on vibrate, on dim, and I left the area or whispered whenever he called when I was in an “inappropriate” place- so I think I never did anything that deserved someone jamming my phone and potentially fucking with my life.
He was ultimately very seriously injured, news which usually comes in by phone. So yeah, not okay at all. In any way.
I hate cell phone blabbers as much as the next gal. I don’t understand the folks that blab away in loud voices about nothing while they shop, order lunch, etc. I would love to get some of my personal calls out of the way when I’m driving or shopping, etc. but I don’t do it b/c I know I can’t drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time and I don’t do it when shopping b/c its rude.
But if I was on a bus, that might be the perfect time to take care some of those personal calls. A bus is not a quiet car on a train, nor is it a movie theater or some other quiet space like a library. So I vote jerk.
It’s a good thing he wasn’t on the bus I was behind/beside on Valentine’s day…I was on my way to my grandmother’s house and on the phone with 911 because she had a stroke, and couldn’t call herself.
Geez. If you don’t want to hear someone else’s conversation, ear plugs are way cheap.
Why should I have to buy earplugs? Why can’t you just keep your voice down, or text? Why do I have to change, not you?
He bought a jammer. I don’t think he has an issue with changing himself or buying things.
When I’m on the bus commuting or at the movies, the last thing I want to hear is some loud obnoxious ass yapping on his/her cell the entire time (usually it’s the guys). This happens way too often. So everyone else has to suffer the high volume ramblings of some inconsiderate prick? Illegal or not, I would not be against use of the device to screw with the loser under those circumstances.
He was a very poor shopper. There are much better and smaller units on the market which are pretty much invisible. I love my quiet luncheons and movies where cells would be intrusive. Go out to the lobby if you must use one.
He’s a complete douche-bag! He should be dragged off the bus and beaten to within an inch of his life with his cell phone jammer.
Not a hero, just another entitled jerk who expects the rest of the world to change to suit him.
If you don’t like the noise around you, that’s what earplugs or headphones are for. He could have caused someone to miss an important call. I have a sickly, elderly father who’s in the hospital a lot, if I miss one of his calls it could be life or death. What if someone else on that bus has a similar situation? How selfish of him.
My husband is in the military. He was seriously injured this past September, notification of which is usually done by a phone call. It is the second worst nightmare of any military spouse. We live with our phones, awaiting a much-wanted call and fearing the worst at all times. I am a respectful cell phone user- goes on silent/vibrate, lower the light, leave the theater/table/whatever whenever I accept a call in an inappropriate place. Having a cell phone jammer is one of the most selfish things I have ever heard of. Because of assholes like this, a spouse might miss a very important call from his or her deployed service member. I can think of at least a hundred other dire circumstances where a cell phone is vital to someone. Quit fucking around with other people’s lives and learn to live in this world. It does involve the public, which is full of all types of inconsiderate folks. Just deal with it.
Then be mad at the inconsiderate jagoffs who make people want to jam cell phones.
There was a story recently about a major airport where planes coming in for a landing were experiencing interference with their GPS navigation systems. The authorities tracked it down to a local trucker who installed a GPS jammer in his truck to keep his boss from tracking his rig. Every time this moron would drive by the airport, planes would suddenly experience problems landing. These jammers are easily available on the Internet, but they’re illegal for a reason.
He’s not taking the law into his own hands. There is no law against talking on your cellphone on a bus. He is taking something he doesn’t like and breaking the law to curb it. I’m not a big fan of people talking loudly on their cellphones, but he is trying to create a form of vigilante legislation where people can make up laws against anything they don’t like. In the process, he’s jamming people who are texting their boss to let them know they are going to be late, jamming calls that someone’s wife just went into labor, jamming police calls…
He is a criminal and should be prosecuted.
The radio system that Philadelphia fire, police, and ambulance uses to do lifesaving work every hour of every day is in the same chunk of radio spectrum as cell phones (and hence, cell phone jammers).
That enough of a reason to stomp on that stupid device until it’s in a million pieces?
I rode the train between Dallas and Fort Worth for years, this Loud talking Cell phone user problem is a common one…my defense was to fill in the other half of the conversation as if the person was talking to me….
It usually worked, they would either talk quieter, or move cars, or My seatmates and I would have a good time laughing at them.
He’s a vigilante in the purist sense. Based upon the video I find his deeds righteous and clearly, under Federal law, illegal.
The TV station gave us a very self-interested spin on the issue: we see the vigilante at work but we are never shown the situations where he deploys his device. Did he engage it because someone was merely placing to taking a call or was that whiney TV station employee droning on and on? From what I saw his use of the device was tactical, not constant.
Consumerist really needs to create a tag for “technology manners” for this post because that’s what’s at stake. I’m sure the Philly transit authority has rules about “disruptive behavior,” but transit drivers are not teachers in rolling kindergartens, our vigilante could hardly nag the bus driver about this. I know from experience in another big city that some folks won’t get off their phones on the bus even when police tell them to stop, much less another passenger. Raising your voice on the bus over an obnoxious cell phone user, while amusing and effective, is infantile.
So what’s our guy to do? Unless the folks in this forum who object to his behavior believe that manners in public places are optional they need to account for how best to stop inappropriate or intrusive cell phone use. In the absence of that, the tactical use of a cell phone jammer doesn’t look like the worst option.
Yeah, I’ll bet he did some more research. Like the kind that told him he wouldn’t be too hard to find after law enforcement finds out he is proudly breaking the law. Not just any law… FEDERAL laws. He doesn’t have to be a dick about it and let everybody know he is the reason their cell phone doesn’t work. Just keep it in your pocket and leave it on. It doesn’t need a clear line of sight to create the 3 meter bubble it will create.
A jerk. I use my phone to read the paper on the way to the city some mornings, not to talk. And wouldn’t this screw up the driver’s radio/phone (NJ Transit commuter buses have a phone that dispatch uses to contact a driver directly)?
Don’t really have a problem with people on cells in most places. What irks the hell out of me is when friends/people come over or out and then just play with their cell phone the whole time. I would love to jam their internets.
He’s keeping that thing, and I don’t blame him. He just learned he needs to be more discreet.
Where I live, (the opposite side of the nation from Phili) there are actually laws about excessive noise on public transportation (which includes excessively loud cell phone use, and other more obvious things like music etc).
The bus is a privilege, and breaking those rules can get you immediately kicked off.
I would love to buy one of those if they were legal…
I’m surprised at the number of people that think it’s OK to “share” with fellow travelers on public transport. No wonder everyone else hates using it. For the most part, the offenders of of an age that cannot recall A Time Before Cellphones. Poor things. Out of touch for an hour and in distress.
These jammers work, but only in a limited area. There is no way one of these portable ones could cause a “public safety disaster” unless the only person with a phone was trapped underneath the guy with the jammer. Really.
I think he has just as much right to peace and quiet as the next person. I don’t get on a bus to listen to some loudmouth yell down their phone for 20 minutes. Sit down and shut up.
Thanks Consumerist I’ll be getting one for my rides on the Red Line
I have one for the movie theater…. after all if I am paying $15 to watch a movie I sure in the hell am not going to have some spoiled teenage brat from disrupting my peace and movie watching experience. I will ask politely once, after that it is fair game!
I have one and I am proud to deploy it there. Mine has a pretty good 100ft radius and is rather effective.
I have one for the movie theater…. after all if I am paying $15 to watch a movie I sure in the hell am not going to have some spoiled teenage brat from disrupting my peace and movie watching experience. I will ask politely once, after that all bets off!
I have one and I am proud to deploy it there. Mine has a pretty good 100ft radius and is rather effective.
I have one for the movie theater…. after all if I am paying $15 to watch a movie I sure in the hell am not going to have some spoiled teenage brat from disrupting my peace and movie watching experience. I will ask politely once, after that all bets off!! I have one and I am proud to deploy it there. Mine has a pretty good 100ft radius and is rather effective.
Definate Asshole that should be locked away for many many years… what happens when someone has a heart attack and can’t call 9-1-1?? HUH?? ASSHOLE, definate… endangering the public is never cool… Hope he spends at least 10 years behind bars.