GLENWOOD, Ore. – A drunken transient tried to take a ride on a freight train, sheriff’s deputies said.
Nothing unusual in that, except that the transient was at the controls in the cab of the idling locomotive, trying to make it go.
When he was interrupted, the man had operated the correct levers but in the incorrect sequence, the train’s engineer said. He was about halfway toward starting the train but had failed to start the generator, said a report from Lane County sheriff’s deputies.
The Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad train was at a common stopping place Wednesday near Eugene for freight trains traveling along the Union Pacific tracks.
The engineer told deputies that he sometimes allows transients inside the cab to warm up on cold nights and returned from a break to find the man fiddling with the levers and switches.
The man was ordered out of the train, but began harassing the crew and refused to leave.
“He got mad when they told him he couldn’t drive the train,” sheriff’s Sgt. Clint Riley said.
Eventually, he walked away, but deputies caught up with him and arrested him.
Caleb Gary, 22, was charged with criminal trespassing and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
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