Train Joyrider Back on Track
Probation, railroad ban for Choo-Choo loon
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Brandon Dowdy made national news in February when he hopped into a 120-ton locomotive in Kendall with a friend and traveled seven miles to the Redland Tavern to see classic rock band Big Dick and the Extenders.
The South Florida man who stole a train so he could see a band play at a bar is ready to put the joyride behind him after he was given three years probation.
Brandon Dowdy made national news in February when he hopped into the 120-ton locomotive in Kendall with a friend and traveled seven miles to the Redland Tavern to see classic rock band Big Dick and the Extenders.
Charged with grand theft, burglary and illegally interfering with a railroad track, Dowdy was facing 30 years hard time. Instead he got three years probation, which is just fine with him.
"I think the [decision] was very fair," Dowdy wrote the Miami Herald. "I have learned from this experience and hope to build upon it."
What he hopes to build is unclear, since the locomotive joyride may be the pinnacle of Dowdy's train-loving life.
The 22-year-old Cutler Bay native has been around trains since birth, from miniature trains on his birthday cakes to volunteering at the Gold Coast Ralroad Museum in South Miami-Dade.
It seemed to police investigators that Dowdy had trained all his life for a trip down the tracks.
"He knew the workings of the locks, the switches for different tracks," Miami-Dade officer Pedro Polo told prosecutors. "He knew the train. To my knowledge he knew the train backward and forward. He knew everything...And he loved trains."
Perhaps the harshest part of the sentence, given earlier this month and includes 100 hours of community service, was the judge's additional mandate to Dowdy: stay away from railroads.
"It has affected my love of trains because I can no longer work around them or participate in any activities that deal with that form of transportation," Dowdy wrote the Herald.
Meanwhile, Dowdy is trying to pick up the pieces and mend his relationship with his mother, who refused to bail him out when he was arrested.
"Everyone that hears about the story laughs at first. They think it's funny," mom Elizabeth Combs said. "But I stand there without a funny look on my face, because they're not his parent."
