‘Leprechaun’ who denied woman seat shamed online
After a “douche bag” in a bowler hat was photographed taking up two seats on a crowded bus — and allegedly assaulted a woman who tried to stop him — thousands of Torontonians have joined an online hunt to track him down.
In a matter of hours, the search for the “leprechaun,” as he has been dubbed because of his green dress shirt and tuft of chin beard, had become one of the most high-profile examples of using social media to shame violators of TTC etiquette.
“So after work I get onto a packed 72 Pape bus and I ask this COLOSSAL DOUCHE BAG very nicely if he can please … move his bag off the seat beside him so I can sit down,” wrote Facebook user Brenda Davie in a Wednesday night post. “He says, ‘No, my bag is there.’” In the brief exchange that followed, according to Ms. Davie’s account, the man called her an “airhead,” stomped on her foot and then physically shoved her “into a pile of people.”
As of Thursday night, the post had been shared 7,000 times, earned a mention on CTV and prompted a call to Ms. Davie from TTC spokesman Brad Ross.
Mr. Ross told the National Post that the transit agency is working to retrieve security camera footage of the alleged incident.
Foot-stomping and shoving a fellow TTC rider qualifies as assault, but in subsequent posts, Ms. Davie claimed that the bus was too crowded to allow her to alert the driver.
Aside from one bystander who briefly intervened with a “hey man, what the f---,” she said other passengers failed to come to her aid during the exchange.
“At the time I didn’t feel like standing around Pape station … for a pair of
Aside from one ... she said other passengers failed to come to her aid
cops who would most likely be d-cks and make me feel like I’m wasting their time,” she said when asked why she had not filed an assault report.
The overnight fame of Ms. Davie’s post is commensurate with a growing North American trend toward using social media to combat instances of alleged anti-social transit behaviour.
The Tumblr blog “Men Taking Up Too Much Space On The Train,” for one, collects images of men whose sitting position on public transit is deemed to be too luxurious.
Twitter is home to a vast image gallery of feet-on-the-seat train riders under a myriad of hashtags including #TransitDouche and #SubwayShaming.
For a brief time, Toronto even had a blog by resident Michael Takasaki that used photos to shame inconsiderate transit riders — although the site has since been taken down.
“He’s magically malicious!” wrote Mr. Takasaki in a Thursday Twitter post reposting Ms. Davie’s photo of her alleged assailant.