Ottawa County News

BOYS CONFESS PLACING TIE ON TRAIN TRACKS

Traced by cookies and an empty potato chip sack, two 14-year-old boys admitted to deputy sheriff Myron Hetrick that they were responsible for putting a railroad tie across tracks of the L & M Railroad which Friday endangered the crew, and nearly caused derailment of 75 cars.

Action against the boys is pending, following a conference this week between them and railroad superintendent Olan Gardner at the sheriff's office. They were probated to their parents for the week end. One boy lives at Lakeside, one on Bay Shore Road.

The tie was placed across the track just east of the Englebeck road. By applying sand, the engineer was able to push it ahead of the engine, which was returning to the quarries from Danbury with a string of 75 empties, and derailment was averted.

Part of a cookie and the empty potato chip sack, found nearby, led to Deputy Hetrick's belief that youngsters were involved. A check of stores in the vicinity brought descriptions of boys who had purchased cookies and chips that morning. Danbury-twp school principal Gaillard Braithwaite cooperated in furnishing a list of Friday absentees, and the two boys were thus traced.

A spike across the tracks of the line known as "the world's shortest railroad" had been reported some months ago. Stern warning came that a close watch will be maintained, and full prosecution will follow any future depredations.