hobo ride causes bad experience Oakland

San Francisco CA

Description

Here’s the story: San Luis’s Crew Hops a Piggy Back We were riding a piggy only three cars back from the units, admittedly our first mistake…in fact, I had initially refused to take the ride. Our train stopped briefly in San Jose. I advocated detraining in order to take CalTrains, but for various reasons we remained on our piggy. Two strikes in the poor judgement department and definitely lessons learned. In any event, our train kept a steady pace from San Jose into Oakland, but we slowed just south of Jack London Square. This time when I suggested that perhaps we should bail before riding into the yard in our visible position near the units, my companions agreed with me. The train was moving at the speed of a casual jog as we tossed our packs off and then jumped off one at a time. Jessica jumped off facing out away from the train. She tumbled and fell. I hopped off last and quickly ran back toward Jessica to make sure that she was OK. She bashed her knee pretty good and hit her head. She was in pain, but, luckily, not seriously injured. We waited for Jessica to regain her composure as the end of the train snaked past. When I was sure that she was OK, I walked up toward an intersection to get my bearings and saw a city cop waiting on the other side of the train. We all gathered our things and quickly walked the other direction. But it was too late. The cop turned on his lights and we stopped obediantly and dropped our bags. The officer was stern but reasonable. He asked for ID’s and as he ran them another officer arrived. They asked us informal questions which we answered honestly and politely. Then a Sargeant arrived. Big bummer because this old-timer had attitude and clearly wanted to teach us a lesson (or something). Soon we were cuffed and split in pairs in the back of two patrol cars. Our officer (2nd to arrive on the scene) was actaully a nice guy. He told us that if it were up to him, he would have let all of us walk away. But, he also mentioned that the Sarg was bad news for us. We asked what was likely to happen, and he replied that first the Sarg was contacting UP. Meanwhile, we found out that our two other companions had warrants (minor-in-possession and fare evasion on BART) and they were definitely going downtown. UP never replied. The Sarg took out some handbook and casually flipped the pages. Our officer told us that the Sarg was looking for something to book us on. At one point when our officer got in the driver’s seat, I asked if we were going somewhere and he replied “Not yet.” I asked if we were under arrested and he answered “You could say that you are under arrest.” He started asking questions and filling out paperwork. Then the Sarg signalled to him outside and the three officers had a meeting. When our officer walked back to the car, he ripped up the paperwork he had started and told us that the Sarg changed his mind. We would be cited and released and the others would be booked. So he handed us our citations (Violation 587(b)) and we gathered our bags and walked down to the Oakland Jail to meet our friends. Turns out one of them was processed that afternoon, but the other spent the night in an overcrowded holding cell, sleeping on the floor. That’s pretty much the story. Wish that things had happened differently, but I guess it all boils down to a bad coincidence. COMMENT: Possibly the only reason OPD even stopped your group, was that about one week earlier, a young girl and her friends were headed home from school, only to be stopped by a very long freight train blocking there path. Since the train wasn’t moving they all felt safe to cross between the freight cars. 2 of the group made it, the third one did not. While crossing over, her clothing somehow got entangled as the train began to learch forward. They recovered her body around 65th Ave.(about 4-5 blocks from where they orginally crossed. (I’m SURE that Union Pacific made quite a bit of noise about trespassers to OPD after that incident: Stunned After Girl Killed on Train Tracks Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer Melody Danridge, 14, of Daly City decided to spend a day of her spring break with friends in Oakland Thursday. Her visit ended tragically when she was run over and killed by a freight train as she tried to slip between two boxcars. Yesterday, family members mourned the death of a lively eighth-grader who loved to sing, shop with friends and volunteer at an elementary school near her home. Relatives couldn’t figure out why Melody and her two friends clambered between two cars of a 64-car Union Pacific train heading from Oakland to Stockton about 1 p.m.