CLEVELAND, OH – A 43-year-old man from Cleveland who was charged with alleged terrorist acts against railroad carriers is spurring some speculation on the several train derailments that have occurred across the country over the past year.
Authorities confirmed the arrest and charging of Joseph Findley for an alleged series of terroristic attacks against the tracks and rail switches of a Cleveland area railway, where both freight and Amtrak passenger trains frequented. One alleged sabotaging by Findley resulted in a brief derailment this past August that luckily didn’t result in the train tipping or wrecking.
The investigation into the train track attacks began after CSX employees were engaged in a test run on August 12th where the train struck an obstruction on the tracks that caused the train to temporarily derail before readjusting back into place.
The aforementioned incident led CSX employees to inspect the track, happening upon the likes of tie plates, spikes and other pieces of metal that were clearly wedged into the tracks as a means to potentially derail the trains and possibly injure individuals walking along the tracks.
Investigators claim the tracks were attacked in said fashion at least five separate times between August and October, with the criminal complaint against Findley reading, “The objects and their specific placement indicate knowledge of how the tracks and the switch operate, as well as how to disrupt these normal operations.”
At the outset of the investigation, authorities were making little headway in terms of identifying any possible suspects, but the first break in the case came by way of some surveillance footage captured by a business nearby the tracks whose owners intentionally repositioned the cameras toward the tracks after catching a glimpse of someone believed to be behind the initial August incident.
While the initial footage obtained of the suspect didn’t afford investigators a clear picture of the suspect’s face, all that changed when trail cams captured a clear image of whom authorities claim is Findley on September 17th, one day before CSX crews located additional materials believed to be used to attack freight and passenger lines along the tracks.
Upon further review of the trail cam footage, authorities claim the suspect was observed checking the same areas where CSX employees later found obstructions along the tracks. Additionally, investigators claim the suspect returned to the same spots on September 30th and October 1st and was observed “taking several pieces of track material and placing them on other parts of the rail.”
With a clear picture of the suspect in-hand, authorities interviewed locals to see if they recognized the man seen in the image, eventually being told about Findley by a local store clerk who described Findley as a heavy drinker who still lives with his parents.
After obtaining a search warrant for Findley’s home, authorities reportedly located the same outfit seen being worn by the suspect in the security cam footage.
While being interviewed by authorities upon his arrest, Findley allegedly admitted to being the man seen in some of the surveillance footage and owned up to placing the railroad spikes but denied having ever attempted to obstruct the train tracks for the purposes of derailment.
Mary Findley, the suspect’s mother, told a local news outlet following her son’s arrest that “he’s never been a bad kid, never, he was always good. He’s no terrorist, somebody’s making that up.”
When the suspect’s mother was asked by the local news outlet why her son might have simply placed down the rail spikes, she responded with, “Being depressed, because he lost his job, he lost his girlfriend, but he never did anything like that. They’re nuts, he’s not a terrorist. I think they all exaggerated it because he never did anything bad.”
Over the past year, and even in recent weeks, numerous reports have cropped up regarding train derailments, some proving fatal. One of the most critical cases being in none other than East Palestine, Ohio this past February, where 38 cars from a Northern Suffolk freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed.
With the abovementioned in mind, comment sections are ablaze with concocted theories about Findley potentially being a “patsy” or there being something bigger in play, as well as some speculating that the suspect may be involved in other derailment catastrophes or was perhaps one of many seduced by a sort of radical ideology promoting this sort of terrorism.
Despite speculation from internet commenters, authorities have not alluded to anything resembling the online theories spurring in light of Findley’s arrest.
Authorities confirmed the arrest and charging of Joseph Findley for an alleged series of terroristic attacks against the tracks and rail switches of a Cleveland area railway, where both freight and Amtrak passenger trains frequented. One alleged sabotaging by Findley resulted in a brief derailment this past August that luckily didn’t result in the train tipping or wrecking.
The investigation into the train track attacks began after CSX employees were engaged in a test run on August 12th where the train struck an obstruction on the tracks that caused the train to temporarily derail before readjusting back into place.
The aforementioned incident led CSX employees to inspect the track, happening upon the likes of tie plates, spikes and other pieces of metal that were clearly wedged into the tracks as a means to potentially derail the trains and possibly injure individuals walking along the tracks.
Investigators claim the tracks were attacked in said fashion at least five separate times between August and October, with the criminal complaint against Findley reading, “The objects and their specific placement indicate knowledge of how the tracks and the switch operate, as well as how to disrupt these normal operations.”
At the outset of the investigation, authorities were making little headway in terms of identifying any possible suspects, but the first break in the case came by way of some surveillance footage captured by a business nearby the tracks whose owners intentionally repositioned the cameras toward the tracks after catching a glimpse of someone believed to be behind the initial August incident.
While the initial footage obtained of the suspect didn’t afford investigators a clear picture of the suspect’s face, all that changed when trail cams captured a clear image of whom authorities claim is Findley on September 17th, one day before CSX crews located additional materials believed to be used to attack freight and passenger lines along the tracks.
Upon further review of the trail cam footage, authorities claim the suspect was observed checking the same areas where CSX employees later found obstructions along the tracks. Additionally, investigators claim the suspect returned to the same spots on September 30th and October 1st and was observed “taking several pieces of track material and placing them on other parts of the rail.”
With a clear picture of the suspect in-hand, authorities interviewed locals to see if they recognized the man seen in the image, eventually being told about Findley by a local store clerk who described Findley as a heavy drinker who still lives with his parents.
After obtaining a search warrant for Findley’s home, authorities reportedly located the same outfit seen being worn by the suspect in the security cam footage.
While being interviewed by authorities upon his arrest, Findley allegedly admitted to being the man seen in some of the surveillance footage and owned up to placing the railroad spikes but denied having ever attempted to obstruct the train tracks for the purposes of derailment.
Mary Findley, the suspect’s mother, told a local news outlet following her son’s arrest that “he’s never been a bad kid, never, he was always good. He’s no terrorist, somebody’s making that up.”
When the suspect’s mother was asked by the local news outlet why her son might have simply placed down the rail spikes, she responded with, “Being depressed, because he lost his job, he lost his girlfriend, but he never did anything like that. They’re nuts, he’s not a terrorist. I think they all exaggerated it because he never did anything bad.”
Over the past year, and even in recent weeks, numerous reports have cropped up regarding train derailments, some proving fatal. One of the most critical cases being in none other than East Palestine, Ohio this past February, where 38 cars from a Northern Suffolk freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed.
With the abovementioned in mind, comment sections are ablaze with concocted theories about Findley potentially being a “patsy” or there being something bigger in play, as well as some speculating that the suspect may be involved in other derailment catastrophes or was perhaps one of many seduced by a sort of radical ideology promoting this sort of terrorism.
Despite speculation from internet commenters, authorities have not alluded to anything resembling the online theories spurring in light of Findley’s arrest.
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