A man who slipped onto an Amtrak locomotive pulled out some control panel wires, disabling it, before he was arrested at the downtown Santa Fe Depot on Monday, officials said.

Electricians were able to re-connect the wires and the engine was back in use Tuesday morning, Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.

Graham said the train was not moving at the time the man got onboard, and that an engine was an extra one being stored on side tracks.

She said the Amtrak Police Department patrols the depot, as does the Burlington Northern Santa Fe police force, but she didn’t know if any of those officers were on hand when the man got into the locomotive.


“It isn’t easy” to board an engine unseen, Graham said.

Several Amtrak employees held the man until police officers arrived and arrested him about 5:10 p.m.

Ahmed Ali Parr, 22, was booked on suspicion of vandalism, trespassing on railroad property and tampering with railroad equipment.

Arrest records show the man has been arrested twice before by San Diego police and once by sheriff’s deputies since September. A District Attorney’s Office spokesman said Parr pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 to a misdemeanor in a December case involving robbery, assault, burglary and probation violation.


A separate burglary case was referred to the City Attorney’s Office for prosecution.