Sleeping with sensor

Philadelphia, May 25 (Reuters): A motion sensor found on Philadelphia rail tracks that raised concern about possible terrorism was planted by an employee hoping to be warned of approaching bosses while he slept on the job, officials said yesterday.

The commercial motion detector was found on May 5 in a rail yard near Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and was turned over to the FBI for investigation amid heightened concerns about rail security following the Madrid train bombing.

Despite media speculation that the device could have been part of a plan to attack railways, the FBI said in a statement it was put on the tracks by an employee of the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority “for his personal use.”

“The employee told the FBI he put the device by the tracks to alert him of approaching foot traffic, presumably his supervisors,” the FBI’s preliminary findings said.

The unidentified “veteran employee” worked full time for the authority as a night-shift electrician but was also working part-time for a security alarm company. Spokesman Richard Maloney said authorities had ruled out any links to terrorism and insisted there was no wider problem of rail workers sleeping on the job.

Country guitar changes hands

Nashville (Reuters): One of the most famous guitars in the world of country music, owned by Mother Maybelle Carter and then her daughter, June Carter Cash, is up for sale. The asking price is $575,000 — quite a markup from its original cost of $275 in 1928, vintage guitar expert George Gruhn, who is arranging the sale, said on Monday. The seller is a relative who has chosen to remain anonymous. The Gibson L-5 acoustic guitar was played by Mother Maybelle Carter on the classic Can The Circle Be Unbroken. (The title was changed later to Will The Circle Be Unbroken). Thereafter, she used the instrument on almost all the records she made. Mother Maybelle and family members launched their recording careers in Bristol, Tennessee. Later, she went on to perform with her three daughters, one of whom was June Carter, wife of Johnny Cash, who inherited the guitar when her mother died in 1978.