| A CN local passes a trespasser and approaches Stroebe Rd. as it heads southwest via former C&NW rails at Stroebe, WI on 29 Apr. '18. Stroebe is a railroad station in Fox Crossing, WI (formerly Town of Menasha, Winnebago Co., WI until 14 Apr. '16 (not Outagamie Co., where Stroebe was erroneously placed on this site)). A few moments earlier, this trespassing thief and her male companion were walking on those tracks, stealing railroad scrap metal. While I was standing near the former SOO rails, in the foreground, waiting to photograph the approaching train, I watched each of them make at least two trips to their car to dump their backpacks full of scrap metal in their trunk. As I was capturing this photograph, the male was standing next to me. He came walking up to me because they were wondering what I was doing. The conversation started something like this. Numb-nuts, “What are you doing?” Me, “I’m standing on the side of a public road, minding my own business. What are you doing?” Mine was an angry, sarcastic, and rhetorical question, anyone could see that they were trespassing and stealing. Numb-nuts, “Me and my girlfriend thought you were acting suspiciously, so we were wondering what you’re up to.” Numb-nuts yammered nonsensically for a minute or two while I attempted to ignore him, hoping he would wander away. At some point Numb-nuts says, “You aren’t going to commit suicide, are you?” I replied, “No. It would be impossible to throw myself under a train here. There won’t be a train coming through on these tracks [the SOO tracks] anytime soon. However, there is a train approaching on those tracks you’ve been walking on [the C&NW tracks]. Oh, and there it is, right behind your girlfriend.” She had noticed it approaching and wisely moved off of the tracks. Numb-nuts continued to mumble gibberish for a few more moments. I continued to ignore him and continued photographing the train. Eventually he wandered off and they both drove away. |