(The Associated Press distributed the following article on August 20.)
MARSHFIELD, Wis. — In the end, it would probably have been cheaper for these stowaways to have just bought a ticket.
Thirteen vagabonds who hopped the wrong freight train, ending up here instead of their intended destination of Minneapolis, were arrested after a railroad employee alerted authorities.
The Union Pacific train stopped in snarling downtown lunchtime traffic for about 30 minutes Tuesday so police could remove the 10 men and three women from the freight.
The railroad had complained of unauthorized riders in one of its boxcars.
The riders, from various cities in several states and Canada, were taken into custody for trespassing, police said. All were cited under the city code for trespass, a $102 fine, and released.
The train had left Superior about seven hours before it stopped in Marshfield, one man said, identifying himself only as David, or “Sleepy,” from New Brighton, Minn.
“We were going to Minneapolis but got on the wrong train,” he said. “We’ll probably all try to hitchhike out.”