Funny story in the Times yesterday about the MTA’s $3 million anti-terrorism “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign. As the campaign’s tagline states, “Last year, 1,944 New Yorkers saw something and said something.”

Reporter William Neuman breaks down the numbers, and finds out that 11 of those New Yorkers called because they saw presumably Muslim men using clicking prayer counters in the subways. (I think they’re similar to what an umpire would use to keep the count in baseball.) According to one Ali Mohammed in the story–despite the name, Ali Mohammed is, in fact, Muslim–they use the handheld devices to count the many names of God as they recite them, not to keep track of how many people they’re looking to bomb.

The campaign has led to 18 arrests, none of which were working toward a terror plot.

Neuman then presses MTA director Christopher Boylan and NYPD spokesman Paul Browne on where the 1,944 number came from, as figures show that 2,096 terror tips were called into the “Say Something” hotline, the NY State Police, FBI and Port Authority Police.

Boylan admitted he did not, in fact, know where the number came from, but that the important thing is that the campaign’s message is working.