Los Angeles and its train robbers
Audio 02:30
Thousands of Amazon, UPS or Fedex packages are stolen every day from freight trains in Los Angeles, leaving the rails littered with boxes.
The phenomenon has exploded in the last two years.
© screenshot/Eurosnews/youtube.com
By: Marina Mielczarek
4 mins
You have to see the pictures to believe it!
In the United States, it's unheard of... Millions of shredded packages that have fallen from Los Angeles trains.
A disaster due to the wave of looting on convoys leaving the port, en route to California.
These attacks began last year in the midst of a pandemic.
But since then, the police have remained powerless in the face of armed gangs stealing goods.
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Even the oldest local television presenters have never seen Los Angeles their city, especially this long tunnel at the exit of the port, in such a state!
TVs, computers, cars, tires, drugs and even shotguns and revolvers
American sociologists were quick to make the link with the pandemic which has increased the unemployment rate in the United States.
Poverty has only aggravated this looting already known in the world of freight transport, but really never on such a scale.
On the tracks, one Saturday last January, there were so many ripped boxes that a wagon derailed.
Looting up 160%
Hold on tight, the figure is beyond imagination: Union Pacific, the private company in charge of transporting goods, has seen the rate of thefts increase by… 160%… The district police admit it, this railroad under the arches is particularly targeted.
Especially since the trains coming from the port are extremely long.
At the front, the driver does not realize what can happen to each of the cars in the convoy.
Less spending on monitoring services
But according to local media, there is also a flaw in the strength of the cargo container locks.
This would make it that much easier to open the wagons.
This is explained by Kristine Lazar, one of the rare journalists to have gone on the spot, near the railroad tracks of the district of Lincoln Heights.
A great reporter for the CBS channel, she explains that the gangs are armed.
So very dangerous, including for security guards whose numbers have been reduced during the pandemic: “
Under the tunnel,
she explains,
the train slows down.
I spent time in this place near the train tracks.
It's very dangerous ground where no one goes because there are violent gangs fighting each other.
But this route is an easy target since coming from the port, the train stops at different places to be unloaded.
The looters carry away the most expensive such as stereo equipment, tires, weapons.
But as they rip open all the packages, cheaper goods are left in the way and then other less organized looters come to take what is left.
40% of West Coast cargo passes through the Port of Los Angeles
Looting on such a scale is unheard of, including for transport professionals.
And it takes a lot to flabbergasted Loïc Battu, rail safety director for the German company
Deutsche Bahn
.
“
These images are a shock!
Even if the thefts of convoys have always existed and everywhere in the world, to see such a quantity of packages gutted on the rails, it remains unprecedented.
Everything is much bigger in the USA than in Europe!
They have longer and private routes which are therefore expensive to secure.
On our side, faced with the problem in particular on thefts of vehicle trains (cars, trucks, etc.), we opted for anonymous wagons on which no name, product or brand is inscribed.
And of course, like any carrier today, when we transport luxury cars, for example, we call surveillance companies.
Especially when the shutdowns are extended.
»
The drones and cameras are powerless because the majority of thefts take place at night, the drones, the cameras that the authorities have mobilized fail to identify the thieves.
Due to lack of evidence, many of those arrested were released.
Five million dollars in stolen goods
Torn between consumers angry at never having received their packages and promises of increased surveillance, large transport companies such as Fedex or UPS are simply threatening to change their routes and no longer send their packages through the port of Los Angeles.
This railway delinquency will have already stolen 5 million dollars worth of goods.
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United States