(The following appeared at WOWT.com on April 14, 2009.)

OMAHA, Neb. You don't need to remind 85-year-old Jake McCourt that it's planting season. He's been tilling the same soil for a half-century. Turns out he's been working on the railroad which explains why his garden has been sidetracked.

Jake McCourt has marched off with hoe in hand for decades. I'm a soldier of the soil." The ex-Marine has dug into the ground behind his house near Railroad Avenue in south Omaha that is Union Pacific right-of-way.

If he didn't plant his vegetable garden behind his house, the railroad property would probably be covered with unsightly weeds. Jake says for the first time since 1947, a railroad special agent confronted him.

"That big cop, Dick Tracy I called him, he said I'm going to put you in jail the next time I see you on this ground."

"I think our officer may have told him he could be cited for trespassing on railroad property and again it's for his own safety, says Union Pacifics Mark Davis.

Jake has just planted 11 rows of potatoes next to the garlic patch, not deep enough he says to bother buried cable and all at a safe distance from the tracks. "When the trains come I get out of the way, I get over there where I got plenty of room," says McCourt.

Though Jake has been tilling railroad ground for years, Union Pacific has derailed his garden this year because of liability. I think for why now, it's safety, our officers finally found someone around they could talk to, says Davis.

Jake sells what he grows, but he's not cultivating riches, only paying a few bills. I know I'm right because I've been using this ground for all them years." He wonders why after so many years of trespass gardening, the railroad decided to track him down now.

Union Pacific says it appears Jake has enough land of his own for gardening. The railroad will pay the cost of replanting the potatoes now on railroad right-of-way.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009