scavengers are drawn to the train tracks in Lincoln Heights because of the litter and items stolen from rail cars. Irfan Khan is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
The scene was a stretch of railroad tracks in Lincoln Heights on Saturday, with a lot of torn plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes and paper packaging attesting to a wave of rail car thievery that officials say has been on the rise in recent months.
Several scavengers picked through the debris, hoping to find electronics, clothes or whatever valuables were left behind.
A man who declined to give his name said that everything comes on the train. He said he and his friends find things here and there, and once found a Louis Vuitton purse and a robotic arm worth five figures.
Thieves are pilfering railroad cars in a crime that is reminiscent of the days of horseback-riding bandits, but is fueled by a host of modern realities, including the rise of e-commerce and Southern California's role as a hub for the movement of goods.
The images have generated national attention and revealed tension among rail operators, government officials and authorities over what can be done to reduce the thefts.
A Union Pacific train derailed in the same area where vandals have been, said a Union Pacific spokeswoman. Tysver said the cause is under investigation and the crew was not hurt.
Union Pacific reported a 160% increase in thefts along the railroad tracks in L.A. County. The increase in crime cost the company at least $5 million last year, but the railroad didn't release specific data on what was stolen or the value of what was lost.
The thefts have been caused by a shortage in the supply chain and homeless camps near rail lines.
Adrian Guerrero, a director of public affairs for Union Pacific, said that rail theft impacts their employees and their customers.
Sometimes an organized group that has halted trains and recruited people living on the street to ransack the containers, is the reason for the 90 cargo containers a day being compromised.
The Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department have been enlisted to combat the thefts.
German Hurtado said that Union Pacific was partly to blame for not putting more security in place.
"We have millions of dollars of items and equipment, but it is not policed," Hurtado said. Weapons are sometimes on these trains. Everything goes by train.
The problem gained attention last week when KCBS and KCAL photojournalist John Schreiber posted a series of videos and tweets, including one of himself picking through packages strewn along a rail line in Lincoln Heights.
People are looking through items that were stolen from cargo containers. Irfan Khan is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
He plucked out a discarded coronaviruses test and a box of REI merchandise along with tracks plastered with the remnants of packages that were torn into well before reaching their destinations.
Is there a package missing? Is the shipment delayed? "Maybe your package is among the thousands we found discarded along the tracks," he wrote, alongside an aerial shot of the littered tracks. Others posted their own photos, and the posts went viral.
Los Angeles has seen a significant increase in homicides over the last two years, but property crimes like the rail thefts are not as bad. Property crime was up 2.6% over the same period last year but is down 6.6% from 2019.
A couple who said they showed up after seeing a post on the internet scanned the abandoned cartons looking for something valuable. They had seen an Xbox package. A man who was waiting for a bus stopped to look through the debris. He thought he could sell the speakers for $200 to make up for the hours he missed at work.
"It's ugly out there," the LAPD's Hurtado said.
In a letter. The Atty. is an Atty. George Gascn, Union Pacific's Guerrero said that more than 100 people have been arrested but that charges will be dropped.
The district attorney's office has filed charges in some cases, but other cases don't have enough evidence to prosecute, according to an advisor to Gascn.
Someone is depending on those stolen items, according to a BNSF Railway spokeswoman. She said that these are not victimless crimes because many of the packages include needed supplies.
40% of the nation's maritime imports are handled by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Most of the $450 billion in goods moved at the ports end up on a train.
Los Angeles councilman Joe Buscaino called for the city to declare the railroad tracks a public nuisance because of the dumping, trash and homeless people there. Branimir Kvartuc said that the effort was dropped after Union Pacific cleaned up the tracks.
Buscaino said that Union Pacific needs to hire more agents to patrol the tracks. He said in a text that the problems had been "unabated for years."
There are two rail yards where cargo is transferred from trucks to trains. The rail facility is located just east of downtown off the 5 freeway in Lincoln Heights.
CargoNet, a company that tracks cargo thefts, said it is difficult to figure out how much is stolen from trains.
In California, Union Pacific has over 3000 miles of railway and BNSF has over 2000 miles. Many of those tracks are near businesses and homes in low-income communities in Southern California. There are barbed-wire fences around the train tracks in El Sereno.
We are not giving up on it. Hurtado said that they do task forces with the sheriff and other agencies.
The story was originally published in Los Angeles Times.
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