LOS ANGELES -Dozens car items are broken down every day on the Los Angeles train by a thief who utilizes the train ‘stop to loot the package purchased online, leaving thousands of boxes and broken products that have never reached their goals.
According to the tag founded by the AFP team on the route near the city center – which is easily accessible from the nearest streets – many orders for US main letters and courier companies such as Amazon, Target, UPS and Fedex were hit by theft, which had exploded in recent months.
The thieves waited until the long freight train was immobilized on the track, and then climbed to the shipping container, which locked them easily broken with the help of bolt cutters.
They then help themselves for the parcels, throw any products that are difficult to move or resold, or too cheap, such as Covid-19 test kits, furniture or medicines.
The Union operator Rail Pacific has seen a 160 percent increase in theft in Los Angeles County since December 2020.
“On October 2021, the increase was 356 percent compared to October 2020,” said in a letter to the local authorities, which AFP saw.
The explosion in loot has been accompanied by an increase in “attacks and robbery of employees who carry out their duties to move the train,” said the letter.
The phenomenon side by side recently with the peak of activities related to Christmas shopping.
According to the reported numbers, more than 90 containers were damaged every day on average in Los Angeles County in the last quarter of 2021.
To fight the trend, Union Pacific said it had strengthened supervisory steps – including drones and other detection systems – – and recruited more Security staff for tracks and convoys.
Police and security agents have arrested more than 100 people in the last three months of 2021 to “enter without permission and seizing” Union Pacific Trains.
“While the criminals were arrested and arrested, the charges were reduced to a mild violation or a small violation, and the person returned to the road in less than 24 hours after paying a fines of nominal,” said a train operator spokesman.
“In fact, criminals boast to our officers that there is no consequence,” he said.
Union Pacific wrote to Los Angeles County’s lawyer office at the end of December asked them to reconsider the punishment policy introduced at the end of 2020 for the violation.
The operator estimates that damage from such theft in 2021 amounts to around $ 5 million, adding that the number of claims and losses “does not include their respective losses for our affected customers” or the impact on the UNI Pacific operation and the entire supply chain of Los Angeles .