Something Most Of Us Did as Kids, Totally Illegal in Minnesota

When you are a kid, you may do some dumb things.  Things that as an adult, you wouldn't consider doing, or it just seems kind of stupid.  One of those things might be putting a coin, usually a penny, on a train track.

Growing up, there was a train track very near our house.  So, a bunch of us would put pennies on the train track, go back the next day and collect your "treasure".  Flat coins.  And then the question is... what do you do with the thing.  It's now completely worthless.  All you can do is go around with it saying "hey, check this out...it's a flat penny".  Great.  Honestly, who cares?  Cheap entertainment.

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I had always heard that putting coins on train tracks was illegal, and it was because it "could derail the train".  That is 100% not true.  Trains are way too heavy and a small little coin is not going to detail the train.  But, it is still illegal.  Mostly because it falls into the trespassing category, and also because of safety reasons.  Oh, and above all, you are tampering with currency, which is illegal.

Department of Transportation states that there are 400 fatalities on average each year that center around trespassers on train tracks.  

I will still admit, however, it's still kind of cool to actually see how heavy a train is to flatten a coin so much that it's unrecognizable.  Only for the "check this out" factor.