The Associated Press is reporting that Edward Mongon, the leader of the Conrail Boyz gang that robbed freight trains in northern New Jersey, will be doing 13 years.
A total of 22 pled guilty to the robberies, which were mostly committed by jumping aboard slow-moving trains with bolt cutters to get into cars or containers carrying consumer goods. Most of the guilty got 5 to 8 years.
The AP says they stole mostly clothes and electronics. In one case, they drove off from a yard with a container filled with 17,500 Play Stations worth $5 million.
The AP says his 82-year-old grandmother, who apparently has also pled guilty, has yet to be sentenced. It doesn’t make clear what her role was.
Give 'em the CHAIR!!
LC
Plenty of juice in the overhead around those parts; just plug 'em in!
Were there not Conrail insiders who helped them? I mean that how do you know which contaner is loaded or a DUD?
I don’t know that anyone needed to help them (though maybe that happened).
A few years ago an ATSF employee mentioned that, out here, the thieves just break in and start stealing stuff, sometimes by just throwing boxes off the train. If only 1 in 5 VCRs survives the drop to the ground, so be it.
Too bad that ratio (1 in 5) doesn;t apply to the thieves as well [;)]
PULL OUT YER RIFFELS MEN, TIME TA SEND THESE CRITTERS BACK WHERE THEY CAME FROM! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWW!
Good! This issue also relates to some of the other topics regarding railroads being less friendly today to railfans, sadly. It is hard to tell nowadays who’s who? Theft has always been a problem, but seems like bandits are getting bolder.
Hopefully after spending time in the “pokey” looking at concrete walls and having to worry about if they’re going to become somebody’s “play punk” their attitudes will change for the better. Doesn’t always happen though.
Apparently by the name of this gang I assume they’re mostly teens or young adults some likely illiterate. May do a lot of good if these guys did attend “mandatory training” for academic and vocational skills while locked up. I don’t know if they do this in the state where they’re at but some prisons around the country offer no-nonsense quality vocational training where a number of youths do turn around (I think in the South or West). If they don’t cut it, they spend more time in lockup.
“NO FREE RIDE!”, and that’s how it should be instead of protests crying of cruel punishment and rights! Seems like perpertrators that cry this forget about the rights of the victims that they violated.
10-4!
Seems to me it is pretty easy to tell who is who:
If they are in a box car throwing things out the door, they are a robber.
If they are spray painting grafitti on a train car or building, they are a vandal.
If they are taking pictures of trains, they are just another railfan!
Believe it or not a freind on mine (who is also a good source) said that some film company in California is working on a movie about the Conrail Boyz.
Leave it to Hollywood to glorify theives and vandals![banghead]
10-4 on that! But we also have to blame the consumers that support this garbage!
"The AP says his 82-year-old grandmother, who apparently has also pled guilty, has yet to be sentenced. It doesn’t make clear what her role was. "
and what the heck did Grama have to do with this?
There in is the root of this issue.[8)] Who raised him? How was he raised? Was there any discipline in upbringing or was it liberal parenting? I’ve said it before that there are no perfect parents, but if there is no structure what do you expect from a kid thats turning into a thug? [:(!][oX)] The excuse of poverty doesn’t hold a lot of water as during the Great Depression many families produced kids that had moral values. [;)]
Goes with the philosophy that:
TRAINING SHOULD START IN THE PLAYPEN, NOT THE STATE PEN!!