In 1949 a B&O passenger train was hijacked in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and 147 passengers were robbed at gunpoint and some pistol whipped by two armed teenage suspects. They managed to force the engineer to place the train on a siding and once they completed robbing who they could, the two made their escape on foot but stole several cars along their route to Washington, D.C. Tips quickly led D.C. Police officers to a pawnshop on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the two robbers were confronted by two patrolmen and a shootout ensued where one of the suspects was wounded and the other arrested.
As if it were a page out of one of today’s headlines, the two teens later sued the railroad, claiming that they were served alcohol and should not have been and that lead to their misdeeds. They did not win their suit.