# I won in Las Vegas, but lost on the train!



## Shoestring (Feb 6, 2009)

*I had been hopping freight trains in Southern California for about two weeks until I had gotten tired of the same old things, and I chose then to ride up to Salt Lake City for a while.*
*I caught-out of Los Angeles and rode north on the Union Pacific Railroad to the first crew-change at Yermo, California just eight miles north of Barstow. Yermo is most likely the worse methamphetamine infested area of California, and this area is rightly called the "High Dessert" for this reason.*
*After I had made it out of the huge switching yards there, I walked to the small corner store and called Dial-A-Ride for a lift back south into Barstow. "Dial-A-Ride" is a small city bus service in the area to where you can call them and they will drive out to pick you up. Once I got off the bus in Barstow, I walked to the homeless shelter mission there and asked if I could take a hot shower since it had been roughly a full week having gone without! I was treated pretty good here and also was given a couple days worth of canned food. After camping for two days in Barstow, I was ready to ride again.*
*After making my way back to Yermo on Dial-A-Ride, I caught-out again on the UP Railroad. I rode all the way into downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, hopped off my train and walked to the Greyhound Bus station in order to lock my backpack inside a locker so I could comfortably walk down on Fremont Avenue without being bothered by the city police. All I had to my name as far as cash was $9.00. I went up to the teller at the Cajun Casino and had her give me $9.00 worth of quarters. I walked right up to a KENO gaming machine and plopped in four quarters at a time. I was picking five numbers in hopes that the machine would pick my five. It finally happened about $3.00 into my game! I hit all five number bubbles that I had marked! I won $202.50! Wow! I have never won anything in my life and now I had nearly 20 times more money than I came to Vegas with. I thought that I had better spend one night at a cheap motel, now that I had a bit of money on me. So I grabbed my gear from the Greyhound lockers and walked east of Fremont Avenue down to where the scumbag motels are. Crack, meth, and anything that you can imagine, you can get in Las Vegas! The cheap priced motel was what I was looking for. I finally found one that had vacancy. I bought a one night stay there and slept pretty good.*
*The next day I walked down to an overpass that traverses the train tracks and walked down underneath then sat waiting on my next train north. After several trains had come and had gone, still no ridable cars had passed. I sat in somewhat sorrow when just then, at nearing 6 PM, a Double-Stack train pulled up to do its crew-change! "Double-Stacks" are freight trains that haul these 48 foot long containers that are loaded with anything from car parts to candy canes! They are stacked one atop the other. These are priority trains. This means they have priority over less important trains, so they can really make great time if you are riding on these. So I loaded my backpack and bedroll onto it then pulled myself up onto a railcar and sat down on top of my gear while waiting to leave.*
*Finally after about two hours, we started pulling north. We hadn't gone far when we again stopped in a siding about seven miles north of town. I thought that perhaps we were waiting on another train to pass us inside the siding, but this was not the case, and I was soon to find out why we had stopped. *
*It had just about gotten dark outside. We again started moving. I looked toward the front of the train, up toward the locomotive units and noticed right away that a railroad police officer had climbed up the ladder on a signal pole and was shining his flashlight on the train containers. What was going on, I thought. It was now too late for me to have bailed off, so I just sat back down on my pack and waited to get seen and busted. I did! He ordered the engineer to stop his train, and he took his gun out and pointed it at me then screamed, "Get off the train right now mother fucker"! "Let me see your hands right now mother fucker, or I'll blow your God damned head off"! I did exactly what he said. I jumped off while still holding my hands in the air. He hand cuffed me then slammed me to the gravel, then placed ankle cuffs on me. I said, "All this for trespassing"? He then said, "Trespassing my mother fucking ass"! "You are going to prison for federal railroad burglary"! I said, "Burglary"?! What do you mean burglary"? *
*What had happened is that somebody/someones had got on the train and broke into 21 different containers and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In order for him to make his report look good to his superiors, he had to nail someone for the crime, and what no better person than someone riding on the train already. I was then taken to the Clark County jailhouse and booked on Federal Burglary, Trespassing, and impeding the movement of a railroad train. My bail was set at $50,000!*
*I kept trying to tell him to take fingerprints! I also told him that he would not, by any means, try to pin this on me! I pissed him off when I added that he wasn't a good enough cop to catch the real thieves, and that he was such a terrible railroad cop that he could only catch a hobo instead of catching the real culprits. Of course this didn't help me out any by making him steaming mad. He knew that I wasn't the one who did the burglaries. *
*21 containers supposedly had been broken into and all I had on me besides my gear was a .49 cent P-38 can opener and I was supposed to have used this for a burglary tool. I could hardly open up a can of "Soon to be farting" brand beans with this can opener, let alone a thick cast iron shank seal!*
*This was a Friday evening when I was arrested, so I wasn't taken to court until the following Monday morning, and even then, this would only be my arraignment and not the time to plea guilty or not guilty. After the lady judge called my name to stand up, she said, "Time Served". She said that there was absolutely no evidence of me being involved in this crime, thus my charges were all dropped! *
*After getting my street clothes back, I walked to the Greyhound bus station once again and bought myself a bus ticket up the line and out of stinking Clark County! I got off the bus in Saint George, Utah about four hours later, then hitch-hiked about 30 miles west to Milford, Utah crew-change. I finally hopped out on another freight train that took me on up to Salt Lake City, Utah, then points east.*


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## Randy xVx (Feb 6, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*

thats a bummer! its a gnarly story though

its always so absurd when i hear about cops pulling their guns on people in the most passive situations ever. oh yeah, let me get off this train real quick and use my fucking super powers to take you out in one fell swoop. its not like im clearly just trying to get the fuck out of this shit town, no way, im here on this freight train so i can steal shit out of containers and kill people. thats like the time some cop was running my id when i was hitching and he asked if i had any weapons and i said i just had my pocket knife, then he promptly told me that if i take it out hes going to fucking shoot me. im just like what the fuck man! im just kicking it on this curb and youre going to threaten my life? as if im some insane psychopathic killer cause im hitch hiking. it never ceases to amaze me how ridiculous cops are, like yeah, i understand you do dangerous shit sometimes but YOURE the one with the gun the baton the mace the cufs and the fucking bullet proof vest, not me!


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## spud (Feb 7, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*

that was some of the dumbest shit ive ever heard of i realy hope he lost his job or suspended for pulling that stupid shit but atleast u got off


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## veggieguy12 (Feb 9, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*

Good yarn, Shoestring!
Thanks for the telling.

That cop really was a dumbass, and maybe you didn't do the best you could have by pissing him off with your remarks, I *am* glad you said _something_ to him about how you didn't do the crime.
Because of course, the thing with him nabbing you and sticking all those (ridiculous) charges on you is that the real criminal(s) - not that I care - were still "out there", and all he did was throw another soul in the system to nobody's benefit, a waste time and money and effort.
Thank the gods you had a decently sensible judge.



Randy xVx said:


> ...some cop was running my id when i was hitching and he asked if i had any weapons and i said i just had my pocket knife, then he promptly told me that if i take it out hes going to fucking shoot me.!



What a fucking moron.
I dunno how I'd react to that; I'd like to think I'd say somethin' just flip enough to to make him realize how ridiculous that scenario and his admonition were, but not too much to make him put the cuffs on for some nonsense waste-my-time charges.
Maybe, "You might draw and shoot your gun before I can even unfold the blade of my knife, but unless those bullets are kryptonite, it ain't gonna do much harm. And you never shoulda warned me..." Or tell him that you're also a werewolf, so his shots won't stop you if they're not silver bullets. Or just ask how many people he's shot in his career.


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## NickCofphee (Mar 11, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*

Shoe, that story pissed me off! Great read nonetheless! I loved the part where you won big in Vegas. I couldn't believe that shit regarding the charges.


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## Seldom Seen Smith (Mar 11, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*

i hate how cops are overly aggressive and when you get upset they threaten to kill you. its fucking bullshit. that's one of the things about traveling i don't miss.

also if you were breaking into trains and stealing shit wouldn't you have more with you than a shitty pack, dirty clothes, crappy cans of food, and maybe a jug of water? god damn railroad bulls are all idiots.


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## Shoestring (Mar 28, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*

*Please write about your "Vegan" experience Arrow! !!:worship:PLEASE:worship:!!*

*(That's not my only jailtime in Vegas either)!!! In 1989-1990, I was taken to jail for "Public Neusance"! All I was doing was sitting on a bus bench on Freemont Avenue, not even drinking or spanging either! I had my backpack with me is why I was thrown into jail that time! (Never go down onto Freemont carrying your backpack)!!! !!! NEVER !!!*




ArrowInOre said:


> I'll have o write up my 'Vegas cops run-in' story... Great read Shoe, as always... I was "ha ha", and "grrr" all at the same time...


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## usuallyonthefloorsomewher (Sep 11, 2009)

sometimes its hard not to point out the obvious to cops. cops dont like obvious. good read. thanks


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## hartage (Sep 12, 2009)

*I won in Las Vegas, bus lost on the train!*



Shoestring said:


> *(That's not my only jailtime in Vegas either)!!! In 1989-1990, I was taken to jail for "Public Neusance"! All I was doing was sitting on a bus bench on Freemont Avenue, not even drinking or spanging either! I had my backpack with me is why I was thrown into jail that time! (Never go down onto Freemont carrying your backpack)!!! !!! NEVER !!![/I]*



Blame the powers that be, mayor, city council, etc. They prob told the cops to drive what they consider undesireables out of town. Bad for the tourist industry. Sucks and is quite inhuman to do.... but hard to prove a case against them.


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