Cell phones, you may have noticed, are everywhere. The homeless even have them! You may have also noticed that people use them everywhere, too: while driving, on line at the grocery store, IN THE BATHROOM. It's insufferable.
One place where phones have become increasingly common is on public transit and, to put it mildly, this is an outrage and abomination.
But because we're living in a society, most people grin and bear this annoyance. Well, apparently Chicago CPA Dennis Nicholl is not one to grin and bear because he's been accused of taking drastic measures:
With a ball cap and business casual attire, the certified public accountant Dennis Nicholl walked out of jail after being charged with a felony for use of a signal jamming device.
[…]
For months, Chicago Police investigated complaints about dropped calls on the Red Line. Then, a 911 caller flagged police about the now notorious Nicholl. Undercover officers arrested him on a CTA platform Tuesday and he is now facing a felony charge.
“He had no malicious intent to really hurt anybody,” said attorney Charles Lauer.
His attorney says Nicholl was just annoyed by all the people on their cell phones and used the jammer to get a little peace and quiet.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Nicholl is a financial analyst at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, where cell phone chatter must not be an issue:
Nicholl's family members declined to comment, but a co-worker expressed surprise that the financial planner he described as timid and not very social had been arrested.
"He's a harmless guy — he wouldn't want to hurt anyone," said Bobby Chacko, also a financial planner for the hospital.
Nicholl had never been a tyrant about noise around the workplace, according to Chacko.
"It's kind of a digital 'stay off my lawn, you young people with your cellphones,'" said one rider (also an accountant) who isn't wrong. Apparently Nicholl pleaded guilty to jamming cell phones back in 2009 so CTA might have an ongoing issue here. Maybe Nicholl's co-workers could all chip in and get him a pair of Bose QuietComfort? That seems like a good solution.
Image: Chicago Police Department
