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EARTHDATE: January 13, 2008

Official News page 8


REAL LIFE NEWS: JUST LIKE A REAL LIFE TRAIN SET

by Hazed

Here's another story about a criminal, but this time rather than sneering at the idiot, you can't help thinking "that's cool!" A teenager in the Polish city of Lodz turned the tram system into his own personal train set by modifying a remote control from a TV so that it could be used to change track points.

Not so cool is the fact that he derailed four vehicles and injured twelve people in one of the incidents.

Local police said the young chap trespassed in tram depots to gather the information he needed to build the remote control device. He wrote in a school exercise book where the best junctions on the line were to move trams around, and what signals to change. "He treated it like any other schoolboy might a giant train set, but it was lucky nobody was killed," said a spokesman for the Lodz police.

His teachers describe the boy as an electronics expert and an exemplary student. He now faces charges of endangering public safety at a special juvenile court.

Who knew it was that easy to take control of a transport system? It looks like security of the systems hasn't exactly been a priority in their design. I bet this incident will have a lot of people worried.


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