(The following article by Carly Baldwin was posted on the Jersey Journal website on May 10.)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Three Bergen County teens who jumped aboard an idling freight train were arrested Monday night at the New York-Susquehanna and Western rail tracks in North Bergen.
The teens, two 16-year-old boys from Teaneck and a 17-year-old girl from Little Ferry, were arrested just before 11 p.m. Monday by railroad cops after they blew the horn and revved the engine of the locomotive, said North Bergen police Detective David Genner.
It’s not known if they attempted to move the train, but a safeguard on the engine made it immobile, said Nathan Fenno, spokesman for New York-Susquehanna and Western railroad. Fenno said he didn’t know if there were any train cars attached to the engine.
Workers in the rail yard, located at 94th Street and Railroad Avenue, were moving trains when they heard the train engine start about 10:46 p.m. Monday, and were shocked to see three teens in the locomotive.
Genner said the teens, who were charged with criminal trespassing, were likely were “just horsing around.”
Fenno said the rail yard doesn’t have a heavy security presence because usually only construction debris is transported through that yard.