Welcome to As The Platform Fills, a weekly series reporting on the latest sightings, observances, and events taking place right here — outside our office — in downtown Minneapolis overlooking the Nicollet Mall Light Rail Platform. The lives we observe are complex. The dramas we record are real. Things get weird. Stay tuned each week for more real platform action.

It was just another morning at the office. I was clicking, dragging and typing when I heard muffled gasps down the hall from one my coworker’s offices. Then a shriek. Then a “Holy shit!” and some shocked, cackling type of laughter (Must’ve been Joe). Soon footsteps pattered in my direction, and I was instructed that I needed to look out the window at the platform. Excited, as I always am at these moments of platform drama, I popped up eagerly to look out the window. “What the!”, I exclaimed. This couldn’t be real. But it was very real. Someone had actually driven about 50 feet onto the train track. Not only that, but they had managed to get half the car up on two wheels onto the platform, which is about 2 feet above street level. We all stood gawking, jaws open. Many questions entered my mind…

What were they doing in their car? Were they an out-of-towner?

I’ll be the first to admit the tracks running through downtown have thrown me off once or twice. And I’ve driven down a one-way before, and in a bus lane. I’m far from perfect behind the wheel. But this; this was beyond just a little slip-up. Once this driver realized he/she had driven on the tracks, was he/she thinking they might actually get up and over the platform to the street? Or were they drinking coffee, texting, and behaving in a very non-appropriate driving manner?