A train derailed in Taunton, Massachusetts yesterday after thieves apparently used a blowtorch to steal two 8-foot, 900-lb chunks of solid steel track. Luckily, the train was moving slowly when the conductor hit the brakes, so no one was injured. Though this crime initially baffled me (what the hell would you do with a 900-lb railroad track?) Taunton's police chief barely batted an eye:

I'm not really surprised. It just shows you people do desperate things to get drug money.

Apparently scrap yards are the new pawn shops; metal theft the more desperate version of cat burglary. The thieves made off with one of tracks, and abandoned the second one in a field.

When the railroad contractor responsible for maintaining the lines saw the damage, he reportedly couldn't stop repeating, "I can't [expletive] believe it." Kind of upset the Taunton Gazette won't specify whether the expletive was "fucking" or "goddamn." Leaning toward the former. [Taunton Gazette]