Jerry 3 Jerry’s final flame out happened aboard the very train I’m writing to you from now.  This is the Empire Builder.  Train #7.  Chicago to Portland/Seattle.   Jerry’s finial trip was over here I believe.  We didn’t really see much of each other after 1993.  I chose to go west and Jerry, when not off of work going through the D + A program, was still going east.  By the early nineties the company was getting it’s stuff in order and really cleaning up the work force.  New rules were being put in place for the workers.  Drug tests and the three strikes program.  It was just a matter of time before they caught up with Jerry.  I’m not too sure just how they got Jerry before his finial trip.  But I do know he was walking on some pretty thin ice.  Once you go through the program, they are aware of you and watch you like a hawk.  I saw him for the last time in the yards in Chicago.  He was going to the company doctor the next day for a drug and alcohol test.   He was worried because he did some things that would show up on the test, knowing he had this test coming up.  He was asking me how he could fool the test.  He had heard that drinking a 12 pack of Pepsi the day of the test would throw it off.  Lol  Jerry had some pretty funny ideas at times.  But he was desperate.  I wish him well and went to report for work.  That was the last I saw of him.  He failed the test and went through the program for the second time.  The next screw up and the company could fire him.  Three strikes and your out.  The union at that point could do nothing for you.  Anyway, Jerry was working the coach’s out to Portland.  He’s always talking to the women on the train.  Another bad habit of his.  Either the mother of this girl or the girl herself filed a complaint with the police at her destination, Spokane WA.  The police in turn informed Amtrak of the complaint.  The girl or mother didn’t want to press charges but they wanted Amtrak to know about it.  The company called Jerry at the hotel in Portland the next afternoon and told him he was being taken out of service.  He was not to report to the train the following day but was to go to the Greyhound bus station and there he would have a ticket waiting for him to get him back to Chicago.  Well Jerry went and picked up the ticket but never got on the bus.  What he did was return to the train and tell them he was “deadheading” (to ride but not work the train) back to Chicago.   I guess the information was never relayed to the train people about what had happened.  So he gets a room and hides out in it all the way to Chicago.  I’m not sure who but somebody called Chicago to see what was up with Jerry.   Well the cat was out the bag now.  Lol  Chicago told the train to just leave him ride on in.  Arriving at the station Jerry sees there are Amtrak police and managers waiting on the platform.  Knowing what they are after he decides to get off the train on the other side, away from the platform.  It’s a service platform for workers only.  He runs into the lower level of the station with the police chasing.  Lol  He looses them down there somewhere and leaves the station.  Now normally you would think he’d head for home right?  But not Jerry.  Lol  Where does he go?  Greyhound.  He’s still got the ticket and wants to cash it in!!!!!!   Hahahaha.   He hands it to the clerk and says he wants his money back because he never use it.  They inform him the ticket was issued by Amtrak and if he has any money coming for the unused ticket he will have to talk with them.  Story over right?  Wrong.  Lol  What do you think Jerry does next??  Lol  Yep.  Goes back to Union Station and heads up to the ticket counter and asks for “his” money back.  Hahaha.  The ticket agent says she has to call up and see if she can do this.  She happens to call the very person that called up Jerry in Portland.  Lol  Game over.  Jerry is escorted off company property and told that if he returns they would have him arrested for trespassing.  That was the last anybody has seen or heard of Jerry.   He never showed up to the company investigation hearings.   Last I heard, and I don’t know if this is true or not, he was driving a cab.                                                                   ~~~~~~~~