Man Radios for Help in Stealing Train 

Friday, 31 Aug, 2001    

DALLAS (Reuters) - A Texas man who wanted to go "wherever the train takes me" was arrested when a stubborn brake stymied his efforts to steal a freight train and he radioed for help, officials said on Thursday.

  Sheriff Bob Alford of Johnson County, about 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Dallas, said 22-year-old Kristopher Huie got caught because he used the train's radio to ask dispatchers how to release the brake.

  Huie clambered aboard the parked Union Pacific Corp freight on Wednesday evening and managed to start the engines. But then he had trouble releasing a brake, and radioed Union Pacific dispatchers for help.

  A passing conductor and engineer, alerted by the radio call, overpowered Huie and held him for the sheriff.   "I asked him what he wanted to do with the train and he said he wanted to visit his family and friends," Alford told Reuters. "I asked him where he was going and he said, 'Wherever the train takes me."'

  "That was a full freight train. It could have been a disaster if he'd been able to move it," the sheriff said. It was not immediately clear how many rail cars were on the train. Huie was jailed and faced a felony charge of theft over $200,000.