A “brazen” attempt at stealing some metal from a box along the Prairie Spirit Trail route resulted in an arrest this morning in Iola.
Police arrested Wesley Sinclair for suspicion of theft after he was accused of raiding a railroad switch box along the abandoned rail corridor on the west edge of town.
According to eyewitnesses — a group of bus drivers about to leave on their daily routes from the USD 257 bus lot — Sinclair was spotted driving slowly along the rail corridor shortly before 6 o’clock with his headlights off.
The truck stopped near a tall tower and platform and Sinclair allegedly jumped out of the pickup with a cutting torch in tow. The former railbed was used back when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was operational.
The bus drivers watched, then called police, as Sinclair started cutting away at metal components of the switch box.
Police arrived minutes later, where Sinclair was arrested peacefully.
Iola firefighters were called as well to extinguish a small pile of dried cedar tree needles that had ignited inside the switch box.
“It looked like a pretty brazen attempt to get the metal,” Iola Deputy Fire Chief Ron Jenkins said. “That’s a pretty visible area.”
The rail corridor is along the planned extension of the Prairie Spirit Trail, from Cofachique Park in north Iola to the edge of Riverside Park on the southwest edge of town.
