Bath Police have identified a 22-year-old Waldoboro man charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing after he reportedly fell asleep on top of a train in Rockland.
When Elijah Burnham woke up on top of the Maine Eastern Railroad train a little after 10 a.m. on Aug. 21, the train was traveling through Waldoboro. A Woolwich resident called police, and a Bath officer stopped the train in downtown Bath and released Burnham to his parents.
After an Aug. 24 meeting with representatives from Maine Eastern Railroad, police charged Burnham with criminal trespassing and summonsed him to appear in Bath District Court in early October.
Police say Burnham was drinking in Rockland the night he climbed on the train.
“He’s made some bad decisions,” said Bath Police Lt. Stan Cielinski. In 22 years with the Bath police, Cielinski said he’s never seen anyone do this. More commonly, police deal with people walking on the railroad bridge, he said.
“We usually try to end these stories with some sort of safety message,” Cielinski said. “But in this case, I think it’s pretty obvious that you shouldn’t climb on a train when you’re drunk and fall asleep.”
