CTA Prez: Stroller-Stealing Train Story "Plausible"
Sticker from stroller apparently found on train car's door
NBCChicago.com
The investigation into a stroller-stealing train will focus on the train's operator, Chicago Transit Authority President Richard Rodriguez said Tuesday, after new evidence makes a mother's harrowing story "plausible."
A piece of a sticker from the stroller, said to have been dragged by a Red Line train out of the Morse Avenue station a week ago, was discovered on the rubber barrier between the train car's doors, Rodriguez said.
"It would appear that the mother's story, at this point in time, is plausible. I have no reason to believe that she would be making anything up like that," he said.
Ebere Ozonwu's story was called into question publicly, when a CTA union head said the stroller in question was barely damaged when it was discovered five stations away.
And the operator of the train told union officials that she followed standard operating procedures by visually checking the doors before setting the train in motion.
But the mother and police didn't balk, and said paint found on the stroller appeared to have been from the guard rail at the end of the Morse platform.
Ozonwu said she was pushing the stroller into the train Nov. 2 when the doors closed and the train began moving. The stroller was dragged through the Morse Street station until it struck a barrier and the end of the platform, tossing the baby out.
Baby Rachel was retrieved from the trackbed.
At church on Sunday, Ozonwu led the congregation in praising God for saving her daughter's life, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Posted Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 - 9:36 PM CST
