JUST IN: Local Commuter Attempts to Defy Peak Hour Train Passenger Physics with Death Stare and Tote Bag Decoy

Skye Waverley | Social Reporter | Sutherland Shire Gazette

26 June 2025

In a brazen act of public transport delusion, a commuter passenger on the T4 line train into the CBD this morning attempted to hold an entire row of three seats hostage using only a steely glare, an outstretched leg, and a Country Road tote.

Witnesses say the passenger, mid-30s, fintech-adjacent, and already sweating lightly under a North Face puffer, boarded at Caringbah and immediately activated what psychologists are now calling “commuter territory lockdown.”

“He had the full kit,” said fellow traveller Amelia Tran, 29. “The large over-ear headphones - the expensive kind that silently scream ‘Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. Don’t even think about my elbow space.’”

But it was the tote bag - slumped moodily on the middle seat - that truly set the tone. “It had a grimace,” said Amelia. “I don’t know how a canvas bag does that, but it reeked of ‘Go find other options.’”

As the train filled, a brave pensioner paused, clearly eyeing the available seat. The man responded with a strategic delayed bag shift - that slow, deliberate move where the bag is moved just enough to allow access, but only after forcing the other person to question their self-worth for 3.5 painful seconds.

Transport behaviourist Dr Elena Pike says it’s a textbook power play. “It's a last-ditch attempt to preserve seat ownership through social discomfort. Either they’ll sit somewhere else, or they’ll sit there but know they weren’t truly welcome.”

The standoff ended at Redfern, when a uni student with zero spatial anxiety sat directly next to him — and began eating tuna from a container.

As of 9am, the man had tweeted angrily about “personal space on public transport” before arriving at work and pretending everything was fine.