Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993 TAG: 9309210168
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAFAYETTE, IND. LENGTH: Medium
Steven T. Marson, a fourth-grader, had climbed into the top-loaded grain car Friday while playing near his home in Indianapolis.
Police suspected Steven had hopped a freight train because his friends had apparently done it before. That led to searches as far away as Little Rock, Ark., of trains that had passed through Steven's neighborhood Friday.
But it wasn't until 2-year-old Joey Vandergraff convinced his grandmother that "Thomas the Tank Engine" was talking to him that Steven was found in Lafayette, 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Joey, playing in his grandmother's back yard Monday morning, heard Steven's cries for help and thought it was the character from the "Shining Time Station" children's television series on PBS.
"He said, `Grandma, Thomas is talking to me,' " said Linda Yost. "I thought, `You little buster,' but he had this look on his face."
The two went out to the back fence where Yost could hear a faint "Help. Get me out." She ran into the house and called 911.
Steven initially told emergency medical technicians that he had been forced into the boxcar by someone with a gun. But police Capt. Jim Reeves said the boy changed his story. "I think he was afraid he's in big trouble," he said.
The officer said no charges would be filed.
The grain car had been on the Norfolk Southern spur behind Yost's house since Saturday morning and was destined for a corn processing plant to be loaded.
by CNB