A Honduran immigrant spent two days trapped in a train car in stifling heat before he was rescued when someone heard his cries for help.
The man, who was not identified, was rescued Saturday when the train came to a stop in the San Antonio area.
He told authorities he had left Honduras several weeks ago and worked his way up to Laredo, where he paid a smuggler $2,000 to get to New York City, Bexar County Sheriff’s Sgt. Russell McWhorter said.
“Off he went to San Antonio, with no food or water or any way to get out of the train,” said McWhorter, who estimated the temperature in the metal car was near 100 degrees.
After two days, the rail car stopped and the man started yelling and screaming and waving his hands through crevices in the car.
'I was at the right place at the right time'
Henry Lopez, 27, heard the yelling from his house across the street from the railroad tracks. He said the man was screaming that he was suffocating and needed water.
Lopez called 911 and then scaled a 10-foot fence and passed the man food and drink.
“I just did what was right,” Lopez said. “If he was eight cars down, nobody would have heard him. I was at the right place at the right time. So was he.”
Deputies removed the man from the rail car and ticketed him for tampering with railroad property, a misdemeanor offense, McWhorter said.