Thieves have been raiding cargo containers on trains near downtown Los Angeles for months, taking packages belonging to people from across America and leaving tracks blanketed with discarded boxes.
The packages are from retailers including Amazon, REI and others, CBSLA reported Thursday. The sea of debris left behind includes things the thieves apparently didn’t think were valuable enough to take.
While CBSLA cameras were at the scene, a man was seen running away with a container used to hold small packages, and a Union Pacific Railroad Police officer was seen chasing two others, apparently Were going through the package.
Keep hearing about the train burglary in LA at the scanner, so gone #Lincoln Heights To see it all. And as far as the eye can see, there are looted packages. amazon package, @UPS boxes, unused covid test, fishing bait, epi pen. Cargo containers left open in trains. @cbsla pic.twitter.com/JvNF4UVy2K
— john schreiber (@johnschreiber) 13 January 2022
There was a similar scene in November, when NBC4 showed thousands of boxes being thrown along tracks lined with homeless camps northeast of downtown in the Lincoln Park area.
According to the report of NBC4, the passing trains used to carry containers with doors open and covered with packets. The station said the video showed two people, one of whom looked like a bolt cutter, walking along the tracks.
Union Pacific said in a statement to CBSLA that the railroad is concerned about the increasing theft of goods in California.
(Photo: AP)
“We have increased the number of Union Pacific Special Agents on patrol, and we have used and discovered additional technologies to help us combat this criminal activity. We also work with our local law enforcement partners and elected leaders.” will continue to do so.”
Amazon said it was directing police to investigate. United Parcel Service, UPS, declined to comment on the cargo theft investigation, but said it was cooperating with authorities.
“The safety of our customers’ belongings and our employees is our top priority,” UPS said in a statement.
Every day dozens of cargo cars on Los Angeles’ railways are vandalized by thieves who take advantage of train stops to rob packages purchased online, leaving thousands of boxes that will never reach their destination. https://t.co/BCizSlXr3t pic.twitter.com/IoCkZhpsia
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) 15 January 2022
Luis Rosas, who works for about $20 an hour for a company subcontracted by Union Pacific to salvage items from tracks in the Los Angeles area, says he’s faced brazen thieves in action before. Using bolt cutters, they break locks on containers and load vans or trucks with stolen goods.
Rojas has been doing this work almost daily for about six months and, even when told that he will not engage in confrontation, is still terrified.
“They don’t even run anymore. They do it right in front of us,” he told The Associated Press on Friday, wearing a bright yellow vest before work to pick up car tires on the side of the tracks. So I was shocked. I was amazed by it.”