(The following report appeared on the Knoxville News Sentinel website on September 12.)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Maybe it was the booze, or perhaps the paranoia.
Or maybe it was some volatile mixture of the two — combined with the gleaming allure of a shiny steel CSX railroad engine parked on the tracks next to Volunteer Boulevard — that led a pair of men to attempt a trainjacking Tuesday night.
Whatever their reasons, the men were taken into custody by officers from the Knoxville Police Department who indicated they could end up facing federal charges for their efforts to railroad an engineer into carrying them out of town.
The incident happened about 10:35 p.m. as a CSX train was stopped on the tracks that run parallel to Volunteer near Cumberland Avenue, according to KPD Sgt. Chris Caulpetzer.
“They just came up on the nose of the engine,” Caulpetzer explained while the disheveled men sat handcuffed on a sidewalk, rocking back and forth in the brilliant white glare of the train engine’s headlight.
Caulpetzer said after boarding the train the men told the engineer they needed to get out of town immediately for some unexplained reason and “he was going to take them.” The men also “might have threatened” the CSX employee, the officer said, although it was later discovered that neither of them was armed.
The engineer ordered them off the train, Caulpetzer continued, but they ran to another engine and hopped aboard, prompting the engineer to call for police help.
Caulpetzer said KPD was trying to determine what sort of charges might be placed against them, including potential violations of federal law for their escapade.
Both men had been drinking alcohol, he said.