The area is littered with thousands of shredded boxes and items, from retailers like Amazon and REI, that robbers left behind, despite Union Pacific's numerous efforts to clean up the tracks over the last several months

Thieves Raiding Cargo Containers, Stealing Packages On Downtown Section Of Union Pacific Train...
The area is littered with thousands of shredded boxes and items, from retailers like Amazon and REI, that robbers left behind, despite Union Pacific's patrols and numerous efforts to clean up the...

Thieves Raiding Cargo Containers, Stealing Packages On Downtown Section Of Union Pacific Train Tracks

By CBSLA Staff | January 13, 2022 at 4:46 pm | Filed Under: Downtown Los Angeles, Union Pacific, Union Pacific Railroad

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A section of the Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles has been littered with thousands of shredded boxes, packages stolen from cargo containers that stop in the area to unload.

Thieves have been raiding the cargo containers, taking packages that belong to people from all over the country from retailers like Amazon, REI and others. ... The refuse left behind, like home COVID test kits, are items that the robbers did not want or did not think were valuable enough to take.

Sources told CBSLA that the locks Union Pacific uses are easy to cut, and officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said they don’t respond to reports of a train robbery unless Union Pacific asks them for help, which they said is rare.

While CBSLA was on the scene with cameras, one person was seen running off with a container used to hold smaller packages, and a Union Pacific officer was spotted chasing after two other people who appeared to be rifling through packages.

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Union Pacific: Train Robberies Up 356% Due To LA County DA George Gascón's No-Cash Bail Policy

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Medical equipment, designer handbags, luggage, throw pillows, airline parts, children’s artwork, even a new wine fridge – all those items and more have been found stolen off Union Pacific trains and discarded alongside the tracks in East LA.
17 HOURS AGO

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Trainlopnik

Thousands Of Stolen Packages And Empty Boxes Littering Railway Is Shocking, Totally Expected

Porch pirates are so 2021, now desperate people are going straight to the source

By Erin Marquis
Friday 9:29AM

Trains in downtown Los Angeles are traveling on rail lines covered with torn open packages and empty boxes after people raided cargo cars for the booty therein. For everyone playing Societal Collapse at home, we’re now at the wholesale train heist portion of our regression:

Link to tweet

The packages are largely from retailers like Amazon and REI. Packages that contained less valuable items, like still incredibly expensive Epi pens and hard-to-find rapid home COVID-19 tests, didn’t have a high enough resale value or usefulness and were left on the tracks with the rest of the debris.

This certainly isn’t a new problem, as Union Pacific admitted to cleaning the tracks at least every other month. Seems like it may need to step up the pace. Police say they don’t interfere with the rail yards unless requested, which is rare as rail companies operate their own security. The problem is so acute that CBS Local caught someone in the act while reporting from the yard:

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Stealing is not a good thing to do, we all know that. Thieves are out to make a quick buck at the expense of someone else. But this strikes me more as desperate, wholesale looting than property crime, and we should expect to see more of it as we ignore the mass suffering caused by rampant income inequality.

Train derails near LA site of recent wave of cargo thefts

Crews are making railroad repair in Los Angeles after a train derailed near the location where thieves have been raiding cargo containers, leaving the tracks littered with empted boxes of packaged goods sent by retailers

By The Associated Press
January 17, 2022, 4:00 PM • 2 min read

LOS ANGELES -- Crews made railroad repairs in Los Angeles Monday after a train derailed near the location where thieves have been raiding cargo containers, leaving the tracks littered with emptied boxes of packaged good sent by retailers.

It wasn't immediately clear if the derailment that happened Saturday was caused by the debris left behind by thieves in the Lincoln Heights area near downtown Los Angeles. Union Pacific said the cause of the derailment was under investigation.

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The derailment caused 17 train cars to go off the tracks, Union Pacific said in a statement. No injuries were reported.

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Rail thefts leave tracks littered with packaging; train derails
729 views Jan 18, 2022

KTLA 5
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Megan Telles reports for the KTLA 5 News at 7 on Jan. 17, 2021.

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January 18, 2022 Class I, Freight, Intermodal, News

For UP, Cargo Thefts Spike in L.A. County

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor



Recent cargo thefts from UP trains have left the railroad’s property littered with debris.

Following a recent spike in cargo thefts from its trains in Los Angeles County, Union Pacific (UP) has not only increased the number of special agents assigned to protect targeted areas, but also contacted L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón for support.

“The thefts involve criminals trespassing on Union Pacific property, climbing aboard trains and breaking into customers’ containers loaded with cargo, packages and merchandise destined to warehouse facilities around the country,” UP General Director-Public Affairs Adrian Guerrero wrote in UP’s Jan. 16 edition of Inside Track; he noted the thefts have left the railroad’s property littered with debris.

Linked to Inside Track is Guerrero’s Dec. 20, 2021 letter to District Attorney Gascón (download below). In it, he reported: “Since December 2020, UP has experienced an over 160% increase in criminal rail theft in Los Angeles County.” He pointed out that in October 2021, thefts from UP trains jumped 356% from October 2020, and that “over the past three months of intermodal peak season,” an average of 90-plus intermodal containers per day were compromised.

pdf_up_la_district_atty_211221 Download

“This increased criminal activity over the past twelve months accounts for approximately $5 million in claims, losses and damages to UP,” according to Guerrero’s letter. “And that value does not include respective losses to our impacted customers. Nor does it capture the larger operating or commercial impacts to the UP network or supply chain system in Los Angeles County.”



Kevin Wells, Sr. Supervisor Police Division, on patrol. (Caption and Photograph Courtesy of UP.)

UP has 1,600 employees covering 275 miles of track at its nine Los Angeles County facilities. The railroad has enlisted additional special agents to join its local efforts with the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol to prevent thefts. Together, they have made more than 100 arrests. UP is also leveraging technology, such as drone surveillance, specialized fencing and trespass-detection systems.

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Yahoo Finance

LA councilman blasts train theft 'chaos,' calls them 'a threat to our economy'

Dani Romero
Tue, February 1, 2022, 8:01 AM

Brazen freight train thefts have spiked in Los Angeles, with images of looted packages and abandoned containers capturing headlines and captivating social media — and putting pressure on California Governor Gavin Newsom to address conditions even he likened to "a third world country."

The thefts have sparked a war of words between law enforcement and Union Pacific (UNP), which owns the railroad and has called for stronger deterrence. But the growing problem has become a rallying cry for at least one local official, who is calling for stiffer penalties against criminals exploiting a weak link in the nation's supply chain crisis.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview that he's "never seen anything like this. We're seeing more chaos with fewer consequences for those who are committing these acts."

The issue has become more of a problem during the past three months – raising new criticism around L.A. County's no cash bail policy, which has worsened the problem by making it easier for thieves to get released — if they get charged at all. ... In a letter to the LA County District Attorney last month, Adrian Guerrero, UP's director of public affairs, noted that rail thefts have skyrocketed by 160% in the county over the past year. On average, 90 containers were compromised every day, the company said.

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