February 03, 2006
Have you seen my train tracks?
And here's something that all of Germany is laughing about: 5 (five!) kilometers of train tracks were stolen last week near Lohra in Northern Hesse.
Yes, you read that one right. The thieves first sent letters to the neighbors, assuring them of their proper intentions. When the mayor of Lohra got suspicious, he called the Deutsche Bahn and promptly got lost in voice mail hell. The thieves worked on the tracks for some days, ripping them out of the beds with heavy machinery. They subsequently hired a local transport company to ferry the tracks to a scap dealer - the estimated worth about 200,000 Euros.
The people living nearby even made photos of the whole operation:
Private picture, via Oberhessische Presse
No, the tracks weren't in use anymore. The Deutsche Bahn was about to sell the tracks to the city of Lohra. But now the tracks are gone and the sale is off. (Btw, and the thieves never did pay their bill from the transport company.)
If you saw something like this in the movies, you'd say this could never happen in real life... Oh, mein Vaterland.
Posted by claudia at February 3, 2006 08:06 PMWhen I first heard about this from my cousins in Germany, I thought that they were kidding. Of course, google never lies.
That said, it does tempt me to try and liberate train tracks elsewhere in the US. Carlos, of course, will be the brain trust for this particular caper.
Cheers
L
Posted by: Luke at February 4, 2006 06:09 AMThere's been at least one similar case in the UK in the past few years. I think this is an illustration of the rule that as long as you wear a high-visibility jacket and look like you know what you're doing, you can nick almost anything.
Posted by: Chris Lightfoot at February 4, 2006 06:06 PMA clip-board and a scowl are nice finishing touches, Chris.
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero at February 4, 2006 08:33 PM