SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A drunk, shirtless man was arrested Monday after climbing aboard a moving Amtrak train and attempting to operate the second locomotive in the consist, sounding the horn repeatedly.
The Sacramento Bee reports Dylan Thomas Baldini, 26, of McCloud, Calif., was arrested after boarding the Coast Starlight in Mount Shasta, Calif., about 1:18 a.m. He was charged with public intoxication, trespassing on railroad property, and interfering and hindering the safe and efficient operation of a locomotive, according to a release from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. All the charges are misdemeanors. Sheriff’s officers, Mount Shasta Police, and California Highway Patrol officers responded to the incident.
Train crew members did not approach the man, fearing for their safety, the report said. Sheriff Jon Lopey told KTVL-TV that the man blew the horn “at least 30 times.” The suspect was shirtless despite temperatures that reached minus-4 on Monday.
No shoes, no shirt, no Starlight!
With Amtrak as a quasi government agency like the US Postal Service, interfering with the operation of an Amtrak train would be like commandeering a postal truck which is a federal offence. Disruption of interstate commerce should also constitute a federal offence. Both are felonies of piracy.
Just lock the doors on the locomotives that are not occupied, right?
I miss the days when men didn’t “fear for their safety.”
I read the headline and thought, “This time Putin has gone too far!”
Misdemeanors? How about felony? This drunken fool could have damaged property or caused injury. If nothing else, he caused inconvenience and/or economic damage to the railroads (Amtrak and UPRR) and the passengers.
It’s one thing to be drunk in public. It’s another things to interfere with or potentially cause damage to a train.
If this drunken fool had done the same thing at an airport, there’s no way it would be a misdemeanor. He’d be in federal lockup as wee speak.
By the way, how is it that with all the tech out there a man without a passcode or passkey could do this?
It’s California. What can I say?
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
In Wisconsin we have “Recklessly Endangering Safety”, a felony. They’d never make it stick but it might put the fear of the sheriff in him.
Then again in Wisconsin, drunk driving is considered slightly less serious than a parking meter violation, especially on IH-43 or IH-41 after a Packers game..
Mister Larson:
For that you get twenty-five years probation. That’s the proper education. And give ’em a double helping of the rules and regulations…
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
Let us see, since the off topic case has segued into the sandwich realm…is there any such thing, as in Norway, as an “open-faced” sandwich? And what is superior on rye (ho-maid) liverwurst with thin-sliced red onion, or ham and swiss with dijon? Anyone for the Limberger?
So Curtis, given your way of thinking that anyone shirtless at Lambeau must be drunk, I take it that anyone who partakes in some type of “polar plunge” must be drunk also?
Mister Landey:
What he has been charged with, basically, is getting drunk and acting like an idiot. I agree that the police authority could have laid a more serious complaint, and I agree the prosecutor (who has the final say on the charging document) could open with a fairly serious set of charge stacks. Why they did not is not for me to speculate.
If you work at it you can build a case against a ham sandwich.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
Of course, up here in Wisconsin, drunkenness is celebrated, witness the DWI get out of jail free cards….however shirtlessness is celebrated only at Lambeau Field just down the road from the National Railway Museum in Green Bay. How’s that for a stretch to be “on-topic?”
ANNA – You make me happy I’m not a lawyer. Any prosecutor or police authority could finds both federal and state laws – felonies – that this man violated. Misdemeanors my foot.
Sorry Ms. Vinson. The charges are violation of CPC 647f Public Intoxication; 602L and/or 554 Trespass; and 369i Interfering. All are misdemeanors.
Train wrecking is California Penal Code sections 218 and 219 and those can be serious felonies. But that is not what he is being charged with.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
LOL @ David Nelson