Rifle pointed at his head was least of his problems
Marni Pyke, our transportation writer and former Lisle reporter, was on her way to work Wednesday morning when she heard of the high drama at the Lisle Metra station.
She made a detour there and ended up spending the day reporting the story about the misunderstanding between the gun-carrying U.S. Secret Service agent buying a ticket from a Metra clerk. (Two different stories emerged as far as who said what to whom, but the ticket taker was concerned enough about the man boarding the train to hit the alarm and summon police.)
Passengers were escorted off the train, frisked for weapons, and after standing in the bitter cold for about an hour, were sent on their way - after everyone determined the report of "a white male with a gun" was the Secret Service agent, who might not have made it clear to the ticket taker who he was.
Marni was winding up her day when she was called upon to do another commuter story - the minor derailment near Union Station in Chicago that made the reverse commute a major headache.
You know what would be a really good story, I told Marni: Finding someone who was rousted from the inbound train and also delayed coming home by the derailment.
Meet Brian Fitzgerald.
A former Marine with a security background, the Naperville man looked outside the train car Wednesday morning to see a police officer "not two feet away" with an AR-15 trained at his head. But Fitzgerald was the epitome of calm as Lisle police entered the train, high-powered weapons drawn. The terrified passengers, he said, got on their hands and knees. He got out his cell phone and started taking pictures.
He also says he got a good view of the Secret Service agent's reaction as police burst into the train car. He had displayed his badge where you'd wear your belt buckle, Fitzgerald said, and had "a look on his face like, 'Wow, did I screw up.'"
Fitzgerald says he arrived at his Chicago office about 2.5 hours late. Later in the day, concerned about word there were more problems with commuter trains, he called Metra at 5:10 p.m. to see about the reverse commute. All trains were on schedule, he says he was told.
Uh, not exactly. The derailment had thrown train schedules into an uproar, and commuters were pushing and shoving. "It was absolute insanity," Fitzgerald said. "One woman fell, and officers had to create a barricade around her so she wouldn't get trampled." Despite all the chaos, he got home only about an hour behind schedule.
Thursday's commute was more routine. His morning train was slightly late, but he returned to Naperville that evening to discover his car wouldn't start in the weather that had turned even more bitterly cold.
Friday morning's commute came to a halt - again in Lisle - where he and other passengers sat in the same spot for an hour and 20 minutes due to frozen tracks. Oh, and did I mention that Fitzgerald walks two miles in this weather from Union Station to the el to get to his office?
I asked him how long he's been commuting. Just a few months, he said. He moved to Naperville to be near work, but got laid off. He found another job quickly.
About 10 minutes from where he used to live in Chicago.