RAILWAY BANDITS

[TexasStooge]

By Alex Branch , StarTelegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - Like modern-day Butch Cassidys, they crouch in the dust and weeds awaiting the screech of a slowing train.

Instead of dynamite, they carry tool bags. Instead of gold, they seek DVD players, computers and auto parts.

And instead of desolate stretches of prairie, these railroad bandits wait behind the lounges and used-car lots of East Lancaster Avenue.

More than a century after Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their gang, the Wild Bunch, tormented the railroad industry, authorities continue to chase train bandits in Fort Worth and beyond.

"It's not a new phenomenon," said Pat Hiatte, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. "It goes all the way back to Jesse James."