1/13/08 Eagle Tribune -"Caught With Their Pants Down"
Caught with their pants down: Haverhill man leads trouserless on T
By Crystal Bozek
Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune
BOSTON - Adam Sablich pulled off some small-time pranks in college, but when he pulled off his pants yesterday, he took it to a whole new level.
The 25-year-old from Haverhill got close to 200 people to shed their pants on the Boston subway yesterday, to the gasps and laughs of passengers who weren't in on the joke.
Even his mother dropped her trousers.
"People will be talking about this one for a while," Sablich said, while fixing his red, striped boxers on the subway platform. "We're just doing it for fun. That's all it is. It gives people a hilarious story to tell when they get home."
The event was called the No Pants 2K8.
It was not pantsless for peace, or no pants for world hunger, but simply pantsless for the sake of being pantsless.
Sablich, known as Agent Adam yesterday, instructed his bare-legged followers - mostly college students and some middle-aged rebels - to tell T riders they didn't feel like wearing their bottoms that day, if asked. Pantsless T riders were not supposed to talk to each other either.
"I forgot mine. I don't know about those guys," Sablich informed one T rider who asked him why he was protesting pants.
Marie Lavoie, 63, of Boston couldn't keep her eyes off the skivvies, especially when she spotted a man's purple thong.
"I'm really not surprised by much anymore. I've seen guys with paper bags over their heads and playing cardboard guitars (on the T)," she said. "But I've never seen the underwear."
It's a spin-off of an event that's been happening in New York City for the past seven years, organized by Improv Everywhere, a guerrilla group that is famous for staging a fake U2 concert. Similar events were held in New York City, Washington, D.C., and even Australia yesterday.
"I thought why not bring this to Boston?" Sablich said. "I had no idea we'd get so many people."
Besides his new role as grand-scale prankster, Sablich works as an IT director at a school in Haverhill and designs Web sites. He is a Haverhill High School graduate.
His whole family joined him in yesterday's demonstration.
His mother, Marie, got a kick out of the people staring at her outfit: a dress shirt, sash, winter coat, pink and black striped socks and black boxer shorts. His father, Randy, rode along but kept his pants on.
"I think it's a riot. I missed Woodstock, so I couldn't pass this up," Marie Sablich said. "It's a beautiful day, and we're not doing anything wrong."
The responses from riders were mixed.
"One guy said, 'We don't need to see you in your underwear," said Jimmy Reynolds, 21, of Tewksbury, who wore black boxer-briefs.
Dan Franks, 18, of Boston said one lady took her pants off after observing everyone else for a few stops.
"She said she felt out of place," said Franks, who wore boxers with shamrocks. "We converted her."
MBTA police Lt. Sal Venturelli said there were no arrests or injuries, not even any complaints.
"There were the strange looks and the questions," Venturelli said.
Sablich hopes to make this an annual event.
"I advised my officers there would not be a debriefing after this," Venturelli joked. "Geesh. What a way to meet people."
Original story found here: http://www.eagletribune.com/punewshh/local_story_013094027?keyword=secon...
