Dozens of freight cars are broken into every day in Los Angeles by thieves who take advantage of their stop to loot the packages they carry, leaving thousands of gutted boxes and products bought on the Internet that will never arrive. to destination.
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According to labels found Friday January 14 by an AFP team on a lane near the city center, easily accessible from neighboring streets, most of the major American mail order and courier companies (Amazon, Target, UPS, Fedex, etc.) were affected by these flights which have exploded for a few months.
Thieves take advantage of the fact that long railway convoys are immobilized for long minutes on the tracks to climb onto freight containers, whose locks they easily break using pliers.
They then only have to help themselves in parcels, leaving behind many products that are difficult to resell or too cheap, such as tests for the Covid, furniture or medicines.
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Since December 2020, rail operator Union Pacific (UP) has seen a 160% increase in flights in Los Angeles County.
“In October 2021 alone, the increase reached 356% compared to October 2020”
, underlines the operator in a letter to the local authorities sent to AFP. This explosion of looting is accompanied by an upsurge in
"assaults and armed robberies targeting Union Pacific employees"
, adds this letter.
The phenomenon has taken off again with the peak of activity linked to Christmas shopping.
According to figures provided by UP, more than 90 containers were vandalized on average every day in Los Angeles County in the last quarter of 2021. To stem the phenomenon, Union Pacific says it has reinforced surveillance measures (drones, detection systems, etc.) and recruited more police to protect its tracks and convoys.
Along with Los Angeles City and County police, more than 100 people have been arrested in the last three months of 2021 for
"vandalizing"
Union Pacific trains.
