Posted on 02/10/2024 1:02:48 PM PST by libh8er
California cops have been left scrambling as gangs of thieves armed with bolt cutters and crowbars are clambering aboard mile-long trundling freight trains to loot expensive electronic goods, high-end clothing and jewelry.
Sometimes the robbers strike while the lumbering locomotives are still moving, while others brazenly trigger the emergency brakes so that their accomplices can hack their way into the metal containers.
LA is the undisputed 'capital of cargo theft' with trains ferrying goods from the major ports, but the spate of train thefts have almost doubled across the nation since 2019.
The issue of mass cargo theft shot into focus almost three years ago, when a Union Pacific railway track was overrun with thousands upon thousands of ransacked delivery boxes.
Stunning footage captured by NBC Los Angeles in November 2021 showed the tracks littered with cardboard as opportunistic criminals picked at the scraps - before the cameraman caught a thief in action with a pair of bolt cutters.
As outrage over the thefts swept the internet - with one expecting mother in Seattle telling the outlet she was 'honestly just disgusted in human behavior' after seeing her child's car seat on the side of the tracks - photojournalist John Schrieber went to see the looting in action for himself.
He shared clips to X of abandoned packages 'as far as the eye can see' from the side of a Lincoln Heights track several months after, where he noted that thieves make an effort to target products bound for people's homes as they are more valuable than bulk items such as toilet paper.
But the episodes are far from isolated incidents.
In2022, Union Pacific claimed around 90 cargo containers were being illegally opened each day, and theft on its trains on the West Coast were up 160 percent that year.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I was like 10 when Have Gun Will Travel came on.
Having heard of telegrams but not ‘Wire’s’, I thought that was his first name.
You know, Wire Paladin.
What ever happened to railroad dicks?
“...but just think of all the ways we are enriched by this diversity”
Tacos, nachos, fajita?
“My parents used to watch that show”
I never missed an episode!
Same with Kung Fu, ST:TNG,
Shoot’em where they loot, and leave them to ROT as a warning!
My Father worked for the Southern Pacific his entire life after getting back from Germany (Patton’s 3rd Army) in 1945.
He always told us kids “NEVER MESS WITH THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC GESTAPO”, they would rather shoot you than talk!
The WETBACKS are in on it, but the biggest problem here is the NEEEEGROS!
The SP ran the freight and commuter trains on the San Francisco Peninsula for decades. They ran the 1930s commuter cars until the 1980s when CalTrain took over. My God, those were decrepit, worn-out, filthy passenger cars with no AC. It was like stepping way back in time.
On Virtual Railfans (a YouTube channel) you can see containers with open doors. They know what is in there...
What? No reference to Butch and Sundance?
The RR can hire their own security.
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