A college freshman filmed the terrifying moment she woke up in a train car in a desolate rail yard hundreds of miles from her home on Wednesday night.
Claire Connelly, from Highlands, New Jersey, was horrified when she woke up in an abandoned train car in Raritan after an exhausting day of traveling.
The 18-year-old had been evacuated from her college in Fort Meyers, Florida earlier this week ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irma.
Claire Connelly, from Highlands, New Jersey, was horrified when she woke up in an abandoned train car in Raritan after an exhausting day of traveling
After finding herself stranded in an empty train, she went online to live Tweet the incident, from the moment she woke up to the moment she finally made it home
She told Nj.Com that she spent nearly $1,000 on a plane ticket home from an airport six hours away and had a long layover in Detroit all before landing in Newark.
Then, after landing, she had to get on an hour-long train to her hometown, where her parents would pick her up from the station.
‘I fell asleep reading biology note cards,’ Connelly said.
‘I was just exhausted from all the chaos.’
The train took her all the way to Raritan, which is more than two hours away from her home in Highlands.
Connelly, pictured, told Nj.Com that she spent nearly $1,000 on a plane ticket home from an airport six hours away and had a long layover in Detroit all before landing in Newark
When she woke up she immediately began filming her shocked reaction at realizing where she was, and said she had just called the cops and was waiting for them to get there.
‘I literally just fell asleep on my train,’ she said into the video, which she later posted on Twitter.
‘I’m on a train. There is no one on. I was screaming at the top of my lungs for help. No one answered, the train was completely empty and shut down for the night.’
She also said that she only had five percent battery on her phone, so she was relieved it didn’t die while she was trying to reach the police and her parents.
After calling 911 the Raritan Borough police came and released her from the train, then waited with her until her parents came to pick her up.
And the cops were less than sympathetic.
Connelly said on Twitter that they said it was her fault, because she should have been more responsible.
When she woke up she immediately began filming her shocked reaction at realizing where she was, and said she had just called the cops and was waiting for them to get there
And after all of that, Connelly realized she wasn’t even on the right train in the first place
She said the incident was the icing on the cake after being evacuated from her college, Florida Gulf Coast University, due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irma, and that she probably won’t take the train again
Other commuters stood up for her though and said the train crew should have checked the cars before leaving for the night.
She said the incident was the icing on the cake after being evacuated from her college, Florida Gulf Coast University, due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irma.
‘Honestly, I probably own’t take the train again, I’m pretty horrified,’ she tweeted.
And after all of that, Connelly realized she wasn’t even on the right train in the first place.
‘I was on the wrong train in general. I found out after I got saved,’ she wrote in a Tweet.
‘The guy who checks tickets didn’t even notice mine said Middletown.’
Officials at NJ Transit told Nj.com that they are investigating the incident, and that this kind of thing is ‘extremely rare.’
‘It’s the conductor’s responsibility to check the train,’ spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said.