According to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a Home Depot on Wednesday night after receiving a report of a disorderly and argumentative male in the parking lot. An employee reported the male, later identified as Jason L. Souder, was videotaping employees in the store. When an employee asked Souder to stop, the man became argumentative.
When law enforcement arrived, they found Souder inside his car. Deputies say Souder was acting “strange and erratic,” asking about their weapons and other equipment and denying that he had done anything wrong. However, because the Home Depot employee was not authorized to pursue trespassing charges on behalf of the company, Souder was let go.
About 15 minutes later, deputies received a report of a man climbing aboard a freight train and attacking the engineer. According to the UP employee, Souder entered the cab of the locomotive and started “wildly swinging his arms,” striking the engineer multiple times. Souder then started to move the locomotive’s controls. Worried that Souder would take control of the train, the UP engineer distracted him long enough to stop the train.
When deputies arrived, they found Souder arguing with another railroad employee on the ground. When Souder saw the law enforcement officers he ran toward the locomotive again. Concerned that Souder was trying to steal the locomotive again, they deployed their Taser to incapacitate him and place him under arrest.
As Souder was placed in handcuffs, he again told deputies that he had done nothing wrong.
Souder has been charged with felony malicious injury to railroad property, misdemeanor trespassing, misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor resisting arrest. He is currently being held in the Spokane County Jail with a $10,000 bond.
Perhaps this gentleman had an unpleasant customer experience at the Home Depot in Spokane?
And if Home Depot had a different policy, the attack on the UP engineer – and potential takeover of train control – might not have happened.
It’s a good thing that RCO is not being in service yet, otherwise the man would have probably gotten away with it.
Activate lights and siren. “Pull over, you’re under arrest for operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent.”
“Tahell? You’ll never catch me.”
What then? Roadblock? Stop sticks?
I was thinking what Daniel said. I hope they gave him a drug test. (After all, if you are going to operate controls of a locomotive, drug tests are part of the deal, right?)
Terrorism though? No. It is my opinion that we’ve been cheapening that word. There is a distinction between drugged up petty crime and blowing up a city or an airplane. A pretty big distinction. Nobody other than the people involved (maybe) are going to be in terror over this.
Charles Landey, you ask some interesting questions, which of course have nothing to do with some jamoke trying to hijack a train. Many towns in MA, as you know, have English origins, where the “ough” endings are also common. As it turns out, Attleboro decided to drop the “ough” and North Attleborough, a separate town, did not. It seems Foxboro(ugh) is bi. Either is correct.
DOUG – That’s where we got started, with the Foxboro(ugh) MBTA extension. The white fire trucks, the abandoned cranberry bog (across the town line in Sharon), and the minor league football team alongside the Providence Highway. In fact I started the whole thing ‘cuz I remember the Foxboro(ugh) fire trucks from my childhood in the 1950’s and 1960’s.We went there because Foxboro(ugh) had a movie theater but my home town Sharon did not. Long before the football team – it was still the Boston Patriots back then – the movie theater was the only reason to go to Foxboro(ugh).
Then we could talk about the scene at the Sharon train station in the 1973 movie “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” (starring Robert Mitchum) but we don’t want to get into Irish mobster violence on this forum, do we?
DOUG – I still don’t have an answer to my question. Why does Foxboro(ugh) have two spellings while nearby Attleboro and North Attleborough each have only one spelling. We could get into Northborough, Westborough, Middleboro, Marlboro(ugh) Boxboro(ugh), and Southborough if Massachusetts were a subject of lucid discussion.
Then we could get into Mansfield and Attleboro, which are the only places in SE Massachusetts with Amtrak, MBTA and freight.
Final question, what happened to the East Foxboro MBTA station on the MBTA Providence line (also Amtrak NEC)? It seems to have disappeared. The border area of Foxboro(ugh), Mansfield and Sharon, which included the short-lived East Foxboro station, was and is thinly populated compared to the remainder of the Boston/ Providence suburban zone.
lock the goofball up for a mandatory Psych eval !!
For what it’s worth, Foxborough Fire Department has white fire trucks. So there.
http://foxboroughfire.hosted.civiclive.com/
Sounds like a meth problem. Pot people don’t, for the most part, try to steal trains. What would be the point? (not that there is a point!) The erratic behavior and flailing arms and disconnect with the outside world…suggests METH. Check out Live PD on A&E…see it all the time.
Stupid drugged out people doing drugged out things.
Mr Landey,
I actually have seen 2 white fire engines. I will neither confirm nor deny whether or not I tried to steal either of them
Bizarre. This is like trying to steal a DeLorean snowmobile or a white fire engine.
Someone please remind this idiot that the old west has come and gone and that the era of train robberies and romanticizing them is over with. If you know anyone who is like this, folks, please do yourself and themselves a favor and make them get help for themselves immediately before it’s too late. Stage an intervention at their expense if you must, but people like this are the reason why we have to do them a huge favor for their sake the way we do so. (BTW, I am not “Mary Billingsley.” I am her son John.)
Geez…..put him on a track crew. He won’t have the desire to be around trains anymore.
Steal a train? OK, where you gonna fence it?
This guy had really come off the rails!
So much for legalized weed in the state. Look out Illinois, here it comes.
Mister Rittle:
He manipulated the locomotive controls. This is sufficient for the felony charge to be placed. This does not mean he will actually be charged with such – that decision is up to the prosecuting attorney. For what it is worth, unauthorized blowing the whistle would qualify, if the cop was sufficiently annoyed.
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not attorney. For getting out of jail quick, there is nothing like Hacksaw Bail Bonds, 509-555-0666.
The article doesn’t mention him doing any damage to RR property. Why was he charged with this? Did the article leave something out or was this just an attempt to hold him on a felony charge, since all the others were misdemeanor charges?
If it doesn’t leave the property is it still stealing?
For those that mention the man’s sanity…no, he doesn’t have mental issues, he’s a domestic terrorist that tried to hijack a train, and that’s how he should be treated. Stop with insanity BS, it helps no one, treat them for what they are, criminals…in this case it should be a felony domestic terrorism charge, but apparently no one has bothered to contact DHS and the FBI about this yet.
Back in the 1970’s (?) someone tried to hijack a PATH train out of New York to go to Florida (?) He would not have gotten very far, the 3rd rail electrification ends just south of the Newark, NJ Penn Station!
Like stealing a car on a small island. Where would you go with it?
wow, a friend who is retired engineer from BNSF told a story one time of a guy running from cops and trying to get into his locomotive, but door was locked. This was when he still worked in IL, so he told the guy he was leaving the yard and he could hang on or jump off. He chose to jump and the cops caught him. Great comments by all
Not sure “steal” is the right word for this. Perhaps “hijack”?