The Beacon Journal - Ohio / March 8, 2007
NELSONVILLE, Ohio - Two boys accused of walking away from an unlocked detention home and taking a train engine on an early morning joy ride have pleaded guilty.
The boys managed to start up the blue-and-yellow Hocking Valley Scenic Railway locomotive in January after breaking through a side door into the building that houses the engine, police said. No cars were attached to the engine, which usually hauls tourists.
Authorities said Matthew Burks, 16, of Proctorville, and Zachary Walden, 13, of Portsmouth, were taken into custody after they rode about 12 miles to Logan, blowing the train whistle and waking residents.
The boys pleaded guilty Wednesday in Athens County Juvenile Court to charges of aggravated theft, escape and breaking and entering, said Keller Blackburn, assistant county prosecutor. Their punishments will be decided by the courts in their home counties of Lawrence and Scioto.
Police said Burks had some knowledge of trains and was driving the engine. The boys had walked away from Hocking Valley Community Residential Center in Nelsonville, where youths stay on the honor system instead of going to a state detention center after juvenile felony convictions, officials said.
Story here
well...
i wonder what their punishment was...
anyways, i have a few questions. how was the train stopped? how did the boys escape from that detention center? why would they hijack a locomotive? and how did one of the boys know trains?
That's quite a crime and some very serious charges! I'm sure the court system will throw the book at the boys and make them promise, I mean this time to really promise, not to do it again and be good boys. After all, they have rights and they are such good boys and wouldn't do something like that.
Wait a tic......
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
CPRail modeler wrote: well...i wonder what their punishment was...anyways, i have a few questions. how was the train stopped? how did the boys escape from that detention center? why would they hijack a locomotive? and how did one of the boys know trains?
The article said kids stay at the detention center on the honor system in lieu of going to another facility, so the detention center probably doesn't even have a fence. If the juvenile facilities there operate like the Federal prison system, since they have walked away from a facility that (I assume) doesn't have a fence, their next stay will be at a facility that DOES have a fence, and probably for longer than they had to stay at the detention center. Adding time for a walkaway, plus the more restrictive environment in a facility that has a fence, is a powerful deterrent from walking away.
Why would they hijack a locomotive? When you were a teenager, didn't you ever do something crazy that seemed like fun at the moment? I did, back when I was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Sounds like these two are well on their way to becoming career thugs, since they didn't consider the consequences of their actions.
Hmmm, I wonder what the earlier crimes were. If Tom and Huck had been real people would they have lived in prison? I think a new thread is cominnnnnng...ah....ah... ah...
Not yet!!!!
Gotta think this out a bit, but it involves statutes of limitations. Don't want the black Expeditions with tinted windows arriving at my door anytime soon.
As always,
rixflix aka Captain Video
rixflix aka Captain Video. Blessed be Jean Shepherd and all His works!!! Hooray for 1939, the all time movie year!!! I took that ride on the Reading but my Baby caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.
Well at least they've plead guilty instead of some crazy arsed plea. Either they got a touch wiser or have some 'smart' lawyers advising them. My money is on the latter.
Dan
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