Boys take crab on a train from London to Southend in order for it to ‘live its best life’

Virgin Radio

7 Sep 2021, 11:39

We all enjoy a trip to the seaside, don’t we? But commuters from London to Southend-on-Sea were left double-taking recently as one of the day-trippers that they saw wandering through the train was a crab.

The crustacean hadn’t accidentally walked sideways onto the train, but rather it was taken on a trip by a bunch of teenage boys who, after seeing it in a London shop, decided on the spur of the moment that they wanted to put it back into the sea. 

The crab was named Hope by another traveller, Simon Harris, who managed to document the crab’s adventure and keep people updated via his Facebook page, Man Behaving Dadly.

The first post on Facebook read: “Some guys on the Liverpool St. to Southend train have bought a crab from a fishmongers and they are taking it back to the sea to live its best life. The only problem is that they keep having to take it to the toilet every few minutes to get it wet.” 

The Facebook user posted a picture of the crab on its way to the toilet and said: “I’ve named him / her ‘Hope’ on their behalf. Will this tale have a happy ending? Can you even keep a crab alive with sporadic sprinklings of water? Let’s hope so.”

The bad news for those who were keeping track of Hope’s progress was that Simon had to get off the train before Southend, so wasn’t able to see whether the crab made it to the sea.  He did, however, ask the lads to keep him in the loop. In another post on Facebook, he said: “I asked them to let me know what happens once they get to Southend, and I passed on some of your messages of support. As I said, they are just kids trying to do something nice.”

One commenter wasn’t happy that Simon was getting off the train though, and said: “You’ll need to stay on the train and then get off with them to see if Hope makes it ok; you can’t leave us hanging!”

The Facebooker did get off the train before the lads, but was able to eventually bring news to the many people who had been left wondering if Hope had reached its destination. “Hope made it to Southend safely,” Simon told his followers, advising them that the boys had left the crab to crawl into the sea. 

Good luck out there, Hope!