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Looted packages on the tracks of a freight train line in Los Angeles
Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP
Mail order companies in the US have been grappling with a new form of crime for months: thieves are increasingly looting freight containers on trains approaching downtown Los Angeles.
Packages are torn open, the contents are stolen – and the discarded boxes are left behind on the tracks.
The packages come from retailers such as Amazon or REI, reports the television broadcaster CBSLA.
Objects that the thieves apparently did not consider valuable enough to take with them can also be found time and again along the rails.
Thousands of boxes on the tracks
A reporter from CBSLA filmed a man running away with a small package container.
A police officer from the Union Pacific Railroad followed two other people who appeared to be searching packages.
According to the report, the tracks look like something out of a disaster film.
A few weeks ago, NBC4 also reported on thousands of discarded boxes along the tracks.
According to the research, there are containers with wide-open doors on passing trains, from which packages tumble out.
Apparently the freight containers had been broken into.
special agents in action
Union Pacific told CBSLA that the railroad was concerned about the increase in theft in California.
"We have increased the number of Union Pacific special agents on patrol, and we have deployed additional technology," the company said.
There is also close cooperation with the local law enforcement authorities.
The mail order company Amazon also confirmed that such cases would be forwarded to the police.
Luis Rosas works for a company contracted by Union Pacific to salvage items from the Los Angeles-area railroad tracks.
Rosas told the AP news agency that he had seen the thieves in action before: they used bolt cutters to pick locks on containers and load vans with the stolen goods.
Rosas has been used here almost every day for the past six months.
He was instructed not to get involved in arguments with suspected thieves.
Nevertheless, he was afraid, said Rosas: "They don't even run away anymore.
They're doing it all right before our eyes."
him/AP
