Poodle on tracks slows BART commute

This dog had its day.

An unattended black poodle briefly wreaked havoc on the BART system this morning when it exited a train at the Lake Merritt station in Oakland, jumped onto the tracks and ran into the tunnel heading toward the West Oakland station.

Trains were delayed for five to 10 minutes around 7:30 a.m. while BART police searched for the dog, said Linton Johnson, a spokesman for the transit agency. Passengers told officers there was no sign of an owner.

The dog was seen trotting down the middle of tracks, unaware that the 10,000-volt third rail could ruin its day.

When the poodle reached open air east of the West Oakland station, it jumped to the other side of the tracks and disappeared. Johnson said police think the dog safely exited the system.

"Nobody can find him," Johnson said. "Police are looking, station agents are looking and operators are looking. There's no sign of the poodle. We only hope he had a ticket."