Homeless man filmed shaving on train, mocked on Twitter
Sep 18, 2018, 3:41 PM | Updated: 4:39 pm
Homeless man Anthony Torres was mocked online after getting caught shaving on a train. (Photo: TopBasedSnaps/YouTube)
(Photo: TopBasedSnaps/YouTube)
What would you do if you saw this on your morning commute?
When one New Jersey Transit rider saw a fellow passenger shaving on the train, throwing cut hair and shaving cream from his razor onto the floor, he took a video and uploaded it Twitter.
Welcome to NJ TRANSIT!!! pic.twitter.com/ie9SR2UDnJ
— Pete Bentivegna (@pbenti007) September 13, 2018
The video has already had 2.4 million views and countless vicious comments, calling him a “slob”, an “animal”, or just downright “nasty”.
But there’s another side to the story. The man in that video, it turns out, is 56-year-old Israel Anthony Torres: a homeless man who has suffered two strokes in the last two years. For Torres, that train ride was part of his journey out of a New York homeless shelter.
Anthony Torres says that he only even got the money for the train ticket on the charity of his brother. He was on his way to New Jersey, where his brother lives, hoping that train would be his ticket to a better life after years of living on the streets.
He shaved on the train, Torres says, so that he could look decent before seeing his family again.
“My life is all screwed up,” Anthony Torres explains. “I don’t want to say that I’m homeless, let everybody know. That’s why I was shaving.”
Anthony Torres poses for a photograph at his brother’s home in Atco, N.J., Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Dave & Dujanovic weigh in
Is this a heart-breaking story about a misunderstood man who was judged too quickly? Or is this just disgusting behavior?
Dave and Dujanovic, as usual, don’t see eye-to-eye.
Debbie Dujanovic says that this is nothing short of bullying. “This story broke my heart,” she says. “Why does our behavior have to go to Twitter shaming and calling a slob and nasty… when we don’t even bother to ask him: ‘What’s your story here? What’s your life been like?’”
Dave Noriega, though, says that there’s nothing wrong with letting someone know that their behavior is unacceptable. “Why are we bad people for saying, ‘Yeah, that’s gross?” Dave says. “I don’t think we need to just accept unhygienic behavior just because we don’t know someone’s life story.”
Listen to Dave & Dujanovic hash this one out and hear their take on this strange story:
