It's never a boring day on the TTC. If you happened to be at North York Centre Subway Station in Toronto on Tuesday evening, you can verify this statement. Police reported that a man was running around North York Centre Subway Station at the collector level completely naked and that numerous people had called to report the man.
When Toronto Police posted a notice to the public on their Twitter account, in which they described the incident, the city was quick to respond with comical memes that made for an entertaining Twitter scroll-through. But the police were quick to acknowledge that although the episode seemed outrageous, it actually happens a lot more than we realize.
Police said yesterday, "Actually there are more than you think. I put them out when it occurs in a highly populated public area."
While the TTC isn't exactly unaccustomed to riders wearing nothing but their birthday suits (after all, the No Pants Subway Ride boasts hundreds of nearly-bare butts riding the subway every year), most Torontonians who witnessed the naked man at North York Centre Subway Station were taken aback.
When a Twitter user suggested that the strange sighting was due to the manifestation of mental illness, Toronto Police were quick to point out that mental illness may not have been the culprit. "It is not only due to mental illness. Some narcotics can cause this type of behavior. Those people can be aggressive and unpredictable," Toronto Police replied.
While certain members of the public saw humour in the situation, many others were outraged by the insensitive responses by Twitter users. This is what the public had to say:
Some commenters mentioned that they saw a similar incident occur at St. George Subway Station that same day.
Ultimately, it was discovered that the naked man at St. George Station was a part of an unrelated case to the naked man at North York Station. So, police definitely aren't kidding when they say it happens more often than we think.