The Sunday Read: ‘The Great Freight-Train Heists of the 21st Century’

[Music]. hi my name is Malia Wallen and I'm a. contributing writer for the New York. Times magazine based in Oakland. California there's something iconically. American about freight train. robberies the very phrase evokes this. sort of Western Robin Hood Narrative of. late 19th century heists you think of.

the every man stealing from hugely. wealthy rail Barons with their price. fixing schemes and monopolistic. practices you think of folk ballads dime. novels and black and white western. movies you might also think of Jesse. James and Butch Cassidy or the film The. Great Train. Robbery but these train heists aren't. just a relic of the past theft from. trains and trucks is actually on the.

rise today in fact since 2019 cargo. theft has almost doubled costing as much. as $50 billion in annual losses globally. by one. estimate just think of how often you. shop online how things are delivered. quickly seamlessly it's almost like. magic in reality behind your Amazon or. Walmart order there is a huge. mindboggling network of trucks and. trains and warehouses.

so for this week's Sunday read I went on. a wild ride through this supply chain. that most of us never really see and the. thievery that comes with. it so the thought of jumping onto a. moving freight train might seems scary. but it's actually not that hard I know. because I've done it. myself I grew up in a town in northern. California that was built around the. tracks as teenagers my best friend and I. started climbing up onto moving freight.

trains the train would crawl through. town slowly and we jog along the gravel. beside it you just grab hold take a big. step and pull yourself up it's loud and. it's smelly and it's weirdly. thrilling thieves access freight trains. in much the same way they pick a car and. they hoist themselves up the containers. have these locks that are surprisingly. easy to cut so thieves will just bring. both Cutters or mechanized handsaws to.

cut the locks and pry them open and they. start digging for whatever loot they can. resell online anything from solar panels. and ebikes to shoes or. cookware if there's nothing of value. inside they'll just pop open the next. container today these thefts are even. harder to detect because trains can be. up to 3 mil long and staffed by just two. people often times the engineer and. conductor have noidea idea that a theft.

has even happened because it took place. miles. back. unopened covid rapid. tests we even. have fishing. lers you might have seen these train. theft videos in the news a few years ago. from Los Angeles the region with the. highest rates of cargo theft in the. country the thieves in action the bolt. cutters in hand the wide openen cargo. containers wow.

insane that's all pulled from trains. yeah that's where I traveled for this. story to spend time shadowing the. undercover cargo theft detectives at the. Los Angeles Police. Department the video clip showed this. section of Union Pacific tracks where. for months people were opening shipping. containers and ransacking them. everything raging from washer and dryers. tires perfume cologne TVs thousands of. boxes were strewn everywhere oh wow look. at that they're popping open they're.

stealing everything holy moly some. people online responded with a kind of. Glee relishing the return of this old. fashioned American Crime train robers. we've gone back in time this was full. oil we don't want this one just open the. cap and let it run out we're going to. grab these. Sony my story gets into why this type of. supply chain piracy is so widespread. today and why it's so difficult to. solve so here's my article the great. freight train heists of the 21st century.

read by Julia. whan our audio producer today is Adrien. Hurst the original music you'll he was. written and performed by Aaron. Esposito of all the dozens of suspected. thieves questioned by the detectives of. the train burglary Task Force at the Los. Angeles Police Department during the. months they spent investigating the rise. in Theft from the city's freight trains. one one man stood out what made Victor.

yamas memorable wasn't his criminality. so much as his giddy enthusiasm for. trespassing he was a self-taught expert. of the supply chain a connoisseur of. shipping containers even in custody as. the detectives interrogated him numerous. times after multiple arrests in a. windowless police station room in the. spring of. 20122 a kind of nostalgia would sweep. over the man he said that was the best.

feeling he'd ever had jumping on the. train while it was moving Joe Chavez who. supervised the task Force's detectives. told me it was euphoric for. him according to detectives yamas. divulged how he learned to decode the. containers stacked on freight trains. through his repeated break-ins and by. Googling the placards Locking devices. logos and numbers on the containers. which often provided Clues to the loot. he might find inside.

an upgraded lock was a sure sign of more. valuable contents inside the containers. most of them were secured with metal. locks about the size and shape of a cork. screw that easily succumbed to his bolt. cutters or mechanized handsaw the items. were varied and plentiful TVs beer. clothing makeup shoes electric bicycles. hard drives tablets yamas worked with. Connie arismendi his girlfriend at the. time after becoming aware of them the.

detectives put a tracking device on the. couple's SUV and followed them around. Southern California the couple would set. up in a motel near the tracks somewhere. out in the Inland Empire or farther. south they ranged as far as Barstow more. than 100 miles to the east after. Nightfall they would hit the trains and. then often shuttle cargo back to their. motel rooms for storage by that point. Chavez who is 58 had been at the LAPD. for nearly 35 years working homicides.

drugs gangs Auto thefts and robberies. and he had never heard anyone talk about. his crimes as rapturously as yamas he. straight out told me he goes detective. Chavez I'm never going to stop doing it. Chavez. says some 20 million containers move. through the ports of Los Angeles and. Long Beach every year including about. 35% of all the Imports into the United. States from Asia once the steel boxes.

leave the relative security of a ship at. Port they are loaded onto trains and. trucks and then things start. disappearing the Los Angeles Basin is. the country's Undisputed capital of. cargo theft the region with the most. reported incidents of stuff stolen from. trains and trucks and those interstitial. spaces in the supply chain like Rail. Yards warehouses truck stops and parking. lots cases of reported cargo theft in. the United States have nearly doubled.

since 2019 according to cargonet a theft. focused subsidiary of verisk a. multinational company that analyzes. business risks primarily for the. insurance sector on cargon Net's map of. cargo theft hotspots Dallas Chicago. Atlanta and Memphis show up as distinct. high incident red blobs but the biggest. blob a red oblong smear stretches out. over the Los Angeles Valley like molten.

lava freight trains are massive. mechanical constructions but because. they've been on the landscape for so. long they tend to be part of the. background like hills in Los Angeles. however trains roared back into the. public imagination in late November 2021. when a local NBC affiliate ran footage. from a section of Union Pacific tracks. strewed with thousands of rans sacked. boxes the video included a man with bold. cut ERS climbing up onto moving cars and.

a reporter's calls to the packages. intended recipients as well as their. reactions to seeing their emptied out. boxes I'm honestly just disgusted in. human behavior said a woman in Seattle. who was waiting for a car seat for her. unborn baby it was like an iMac scale. version of those now ubiquitous security. camera videos of porch Pirates sneaking. off with. deliveries soon videos of the trains. were circulating all all over by January.

the story had become international news. and the images a kind of culture war. Roar shock test when a photojournalist. and helicopter cameraman for CBS Los. Angeles posted a thread to Twitter. featuring similar footage tens of. thousands of people retweeted and. commented some viewers saw the videos as. evidence of the absurdity of global. Ecommerce runamuk some even reveled at. the return of an iconic American Crime. one respondent posted a clip of Robert.

Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy. and the Sundance Kid another quipped who. will cry for the Amazon. packages but other viewers saw the. entire mess as illustrative of a kind of. dystopia and lawlessness they attributed. to Liberal cities gone Rogue this. breakdown of order is happening because. the Bedrock of civilized society the. rule of law has been abandoned the. editors of National Review wrote for Los.

Angeles District Attorney George gasone. a paradigm Exemplar of today's. Progressive prosecutors this is. literally the express track. redistribution of. [Music]. wealth at the time Union Pacific claimed. that about 90 containers were being. opened per day and that theft on their. freight trains in the area was up some. 160% from the previous year about 80. guns were stolen from trains in early.

2022 Governor Gavin Nome dawned a pair. of work gloves and picked up scattered. boxes on the tracks himself what the. hell is going on he asked the assembled. television news crews the Los Angeles. Police Department scrambled to respond. Chavez and his crew of detectives were. put on the case the boxes on the tracks. were cleaned up and for the most part. the story went quiet but under the. Placid surface of digital Commerce even. as consumers continued to get almost all.

of their online orders delivered to. their doors so seamlessly and quickly it. felt vaguely like magic the supply chain. roiled plagued by thieves and things. continued to go missing whole trucks and. train cars worth of. things give me a call regarding your. land pirates. Story the text that popped up on my. phone last fall was was from the. communications guy at the Brotherhood of.

locomotive engineers and trainmen which. represents more than 51,000 members he. connected me with Edward a hall who in. late 2022 won an upset election to. become the Union's National president. after spending 28 years as an engineer. for Union Pacific first in El Paso Texas. but mostly out of Tucson. Arizona I wanted to know what it was. like to be inside a train during during. a. heist up in the cab Hall told me he.

regularly passed stopped trains and saw. people clambering up ladders or loading. cargo into their trucks pulled up. alongside the tracks sometimes he saw. people breaking into moving trains too. he would call the rail police dispatcher. and keep going those container doors. meanwhile stayed open he said trailing. boxes as the train rolled on Hall saw. all kinds of merchandise spr spread out. across the tracks including tires and.

televisions Engineers don't stop for. this flatsome of global capitalism they. run over it once near the dragon. mountains in southeast Arizona Hall. drove a train through a desolate quarter. mile of track littered with hundreds of. pairs of Nike. sneakers between LA and Tucson is where. I know a lot of theft happens Hall said. the most extreme type of modern trained. theft occurs when thieves cut the air.

compression brake hoses that run between. train cars thereby triggering an. emergency braking system when that. happens the engineer stays in the cab. and the conductor walks the length of. the stop train trying to locate the. source of the problem thieves can also. stop a train by decoupling some of its. cars of course if a train is miles long. that walk takes a while in the meantime. the pilferers. unload law enforcement officials told me. that it's it's not uncommon for thieves.

to Target specific Cars full of. electronics say or tires in a way that. suggests previous knowledge of their. contents Gary Rogers a former Union. Pacific law enforcement agent says that. during his decades working throughout. the West he saw thieves coordinate their. movements precisely one of them would. climb aboard a moving train and know. just when and to what extent to cut into. the air compression hose the train would. stop and the guys would be there waiting.

to unload Rogers told me it's easy to. imagine how frightening a heist might be. for a train engineer and conductor but. in cases when the train has not been. stopped they often have no idea it's. even happening sometimes they won't know. for hundreds maybe thousands of miles. until they arrive at their destination. and discover looted. cars piracy is an age-old occupation. particularly prevalent in places and. times when when large gaps have. separated the rich and the poor but this.

modern-day Resurgence in cargo theft. stems in no small part from the Extreme. Ways the internet has altered the buying. and selling of things when the United. States Census Bureau began collecting. data on e-commerce in. 1998 online sales amounted to some $5. billion now that figure is upward of. $958 billion e-commerce revenue is. forecast to exceed $2.5 trillion by.

2027 the need to get packages to. Consumers quickly has reshaped the. infrastructural landscape changing the. way Freight moves around the world. through more warehouses distribution. centers modes of Transport trucks trains. planes delivery drivers this ever. quickening tangle has opened new. vulnerabilities to be exploited by. supply chain. thieves many in the indust would prefer. not to talk about theft Union Pacific.

and BNSF Railway declined my interview. requests they each along with the. association of American railroads an. industry trade group representing major. Freight rail provided written statements. emphasizing their commitment to. combating theft none of the parties. involved the rail companies the truckers. the shippers the warehouses the. insurance companies are required to. publicly disclose stolen Freight.

either on the website of operation. boiling point which the Department of. Homeland Security recently created to go. after organized theft groups the agency. states that cargo theft accounts for. between $15 billion and $35 billion in. annual losses the Federal Bureau of. Investigation in a statement emailed to. me estimated that cargo theft losses. amounted to $1 billion nationally in 20. 20 21 but the agency acknowledged that.

that was an undercount an FBI. spokesperson also confirmed that the. agency is working with the rail. companies and deploying Special Agents. from its major theft program to address. Rail and cargo theft in known trouble. spots one expert on supply chain risks. gave me an estimate of $50 billion in. annual losses globally and noted that. this kind of crime is a notorious. problem in Mexico and Brazil. but essentially it's impossible to get a.

clear picture of how much is perined. from the supply chain who takes it or. where it goes next we do know that often. these hijacked goods are cycled back. into the online ecosystem turning up for. sale on places like Amazon eBay Etsy and. Facebook Marketplace some ebikes Chavez. watched yamas and others take from the. trains later showed up on offer up. sometimes products stolen out of Amazon.

containers are resold by third-party. sellers back on Amazon in a kind of. strange eurobus in which the snakehead. of capitalism hungrily swallows its. piracy. tale last June California's attorney. general created what was touted as a. firstof its- kind agreement among online. retailers that committed them to doing a. better job tracking reporting and. preventing stolen items from being. resold on their platforms while.

declining to comment on specific cases a. spokesperson for Amazon told me that the. company is working to improve the. process of vetting sellers the number of. bad actor attempts to create new selling. accounts on Amazon decrease to 800,000. in 2022 from 6 million in. 2020 but filched cargo can be hard to. get a handle on it shape shifts in. effect if you're buying brand new.

speakers from someone's trunk in a. parking lot you can probably deduce that. there's a good chance they were ripped. off but the anonymity of the internet. essentially launders stuff Cindy amrosen. executive director of the America's. focused branch of the transported Asset. Protection Association told me that the. job of tracking misappropriated Goods. across borders and territories and law. enforcement jurisdictions is often. feudal particular particularly when. merchandise is moved out of the country.

before being sold back into the United. States online Rosen would know her. organization is made up of insurance. companies federal state and local law. enforcement agencies security firms. shippers truckers railroad companies and. manufacturers you're basically trying to. catch a fly in a dark room she. says more freight is moved on Trucks. Than on trains and much more is stolen. off trucks too Trucking is a chaotic.

industry with hundreds of thousands of. companies some as small as a single. driver and a Truck rail on the other. hand is essentially duopolistic just two. companies Union Pacific and BNSF Railway. serve the entire Western United States. CSX Transportation and norfol Southern. Railway dominate the East against trucks. thieves use various forms of digital. forgery and cyber fraud including.

something called a fictitious pickup in. which someone impersonates an authorized. truck driver online and reroutes a. truck's load this kind of theft. increased almost 600% between 2021 and. 2022 according to cargonet data and on. the rails some cargo coal grain cement. fertilizer petrochemicals Lumber is just. too cumbersome to appeal to thieves it's. easier to run off with pallets of beer.

or the newest issue. Nikes but railroads have increasingly. been vying to move more containerized. freight they want to make the most of. the e-commerce Boom the fastest growing. segment of rail traffic is what's called. Intermodal which refers to shipping. containers and trailers that move on. more than one mode of Transit ships. trains and. trucks these containers often carry. merchandise Bound for stores or. Packaging is Bound for consumers Amazon.

for example now has its own branded. containers in part to meet its Net Zero. carbon emission goal hauling a ton of. goods on rail produces about eight times. less emission than on a truck such. Intermodal trains tend to be long which. can make them more. vulnerable over the past decade in a. push for greater efficiency and amid. record-breaking profits the country's. largest railroads have been stringing. together long ER trains some now stretch.

two or even 3 miles in length at the. same time these companies cut the number. of employees by nearly 30% so fewer. people now manage these longer trains. currently the Federal Railroad. Administration does not Place limits on. freight train length despite safety. concerns the tracks heading away from. the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. are thick with long trains carrying. Intermodal containers teaming with. imports from Asia electronics toys.

clothing shoes food and beverages just. the sort of offerings thieves find most. [Music]. enticing see this one of the plain. clothes LAPD cargo theft unit detectives. was directing my attention to a box of.

electronic bird feeders with a yellow. sticker on it showing an image of. batteries thieves look for placards like. this because they know there will be. some kind of electronics inside he said. we were in a 7500 Square ft windowless. Warehouse surrounded by metal fencing. and looped barbed wire located under. Interstate 10 in downtown Los Angeles. the warehouse packed with $5 million. worth of cargo stolen from BNSF Railway.

belonged to the California Department of. Transportation but had been leased or. subleased by thieves the detectives were. still trying to identify they ran across. the place almost accidentally a few days. earlier while tracking a truckload of. boosted. tires inside the cavernous room The. Towering Stacks included pallets of Nike. shoes more pallets piled high with. Adidas shoes Under Armour leggings Crocs. and count L colors and sizes tumbling.

from boxes onto the dusty floor air. purifiers computer monitors thousands of. bottles of melatonin gummies those knee. scooters people roll around on after. injuries cordless robotic pool cleaners. tobac less cigarettes that smelled like. lawn clippings vape pens REI outdoor. gear boxes of plastic trash can liners. Bluetooth speakers plastic shower. curtains car seats stainless steel cook. Weare and Disney backpacks featuring a.

heroine I didn't recognize an image. search later revealed that she was Asha. from an animated film wish that had not. yet been. released one of the two detectives at. the warehouse was previously on the. train burglary task force with Chavez. because they work undercover I'm not. using their names the detectives studied. the labels and purchase order numbers on. the boxes in order to determine the. companies of origin and where their. goods were being shipped to and from.

then they called asset recovery. specialists at the companies Nike Adidas. and Under Armour had already sent trucks. to recoup their missing Goods the. detectives didn't know yet where the. items were stolen or even if they were. taken from an eastbound train or a. westbound train or a truck in a rail. yard they suspected that the jumble had. been accumulating in this warehouse for. months a BNSF special agent was present. too creating an inventory of the. pillaged property in Most states the.

railroad police are certified Law. Enforcement Officers with arrest powers. on and off the tracks he wouldn't give. me his name because he wasn't authorized. to talk to the media but we chatted for. a while as two BNSF workers with a. forklift loaded the pallets into waiting. trucks to be taken to another Warehouse. unprompted he said that he wanted to. retire to an island with no trains a. place where he would never again hear a. lonesome train whistle at night I hate.

that he told me some of the stockpile in. the warehouse would most likely be. reclaimed some would be sold to. Liquidators some would be tossed the. detectives told me that most inestable. things are destroyed who wants the. liability of putting recovered food. beverages or medicines back into the. supply chain one detective cell phone. rang it's Disney he said tucking the. receiver under his chin it turned out. the company had opened its own case into.

those missing backpacks which were. looted on route to Las Vegas thereby. prematurely letting this heroin out into. the. world it is not unusual for stolen cargo. to be hidden for a time in just such a. warehouse before it can be resold one. night in the spring of 2022 Chavez and. his crew of detectives sat in unmarked. cars on a road beside the tracks where. trains leave the ports of Los Angeles. and Long Beach it was here on What's.

called the Alam Corridor where the. detectives first spotted the. enthusiastic yamas loading up a car with. oversized boxes containing high-end. electric bicycles fresh off the train. that night the detectives followed him. to Francisco Gara who stashed Cargo in a. parking lot and in a warehouse packed. with burglarized items including brand. new. coffins the detectives were looking for. people working together like this in. organized fencing Rings someone who buys.

and sells plundered Goods is called a. fence but over the course of the task. Force's existence which lasted nearly a. year only 34 of the roughly 700 people. arrested or cited for stealing from. trains were part of these organized. Crews many more were just passers by or. unhoused people living near the tracks. in RVs or makeshift structures who just. happened to pick up Fallen. boxes Chavez gave me a driving tour of.

the Alam Corridor and the city's other. train theft hotpots in his truck one. bright day last October the tracks were. no longer littered with boxes new. fencing and barbed wire had been put up. beside them keep your eyes out Chavez. told me I wouldn't be surprised if we. see someone stealing stuff off the. trains today we pulled up alongside a. Union Pacific freight train waiting to. enter a yard they hit that one he said. he had stopped his truck in the middle.

of busy Valley Boulevard to point out a. container with its doors hanging wide. open most of the train cars carried. double stacked containers many of the. top containers had been breached in some. we could see cardboard packages of. various sizes others looked empty see. they hit that one too Chavez said that's. Walmart you know they're going to hit. that. one earlier that morning before he. picked me up Chavez took the. psychological exam required to become a.

law enforcement agent for BNSF Railway. he retired from the police force early. in 2023 just after the train burglary. task force disbanded soon he would be. somewhere out along the company's. 32,500 M of track which had him thinking. about yamas in late 2022 yamas arismendi. and their fence Gara were arrested and. each charged with multiple felonies.

related to train heists arismendi and. Gara are serving time in jail yamas. however stopped showing up to his court. dates and vanished after pleading not. guilty to eight felony charges and. posting bail I have a feeling I'll see. him again Chavez told me his eyes. scanning the trains as if he might spot. the man that very day scaling the side. of a train in motion bolt cutters in. hand climbing cling aboard a moving. freight train isn't as difficult as it.

might seem I know I've done it my. hometown in Northern California like. many Western towns was Tiny and sliced. through by tracks in n9th grade my best. friend and I started pulling ourselves. up on freight trains as they crawled. through town before beginning their. Ascent into the sieras we were bored and. had recently discovered the beat writers. and were making a literary Zen on my. dad's copy machine teenage girls. scrambling at top the Machinery of.

capitalism was appealingly transgressive. if Jack caroak and blues musicians and. the teenagers of the Great Depression. could hop trains without being crushed. we could too I can relate a little at. least to yam's exuberance Clinging On. with one hand we sometimes used Rusty. Nails to scratch words on the brightly. painted boxes before jumping back down. into the sharp gravel and walking back. toward home we never went more than a.

mile and we never stole anything. although honestly I wonder now if we. might have tried to had we known how. easy it is to open those. containers while truckers are sometimes. hijacked at gun or knife Point train. theft is almost exclusively nonviolent. nowadays not so with old timey Train. Robbers who were notedly homicidal with. a pension for explosives in one study. published in the journal criminal.

justice review researchers analyzed. information C from newspaper accounts of. 241 train heists that occurred between. 1866 and 1930 granted reporters were. most likely covering the more violent. robberies but still more than 90% of. them were committed at gunpoint nearly. 30% involved dynamite and in roughly as. many cases at least one person was shot. sometimes thieves would blow up the. track derailing the train and killing.

passengers newspapers breathlessly. covered the thefts as did western dime. novels and traveling wild west shows. notorious train thieves like Butch. Cassidy and Jesse James became household. names in 1903 movie goers flocked to. theaters to see a short silent film The. Great Train Robbery featuring four. gunslinging Bandits commandeering a. train and stealing valuables from past. ERS before escaping on Horseback only to.

be chased down by a local posy and. killed in a shootout westerns with their. themes of crime Pursuit and retribution. became part of how we think about. criminal justice and the Landscapes of. the West it wasn't uncommon for some. Train Robbers to enjoy a kind of folk. hero status too one Thief William L. Carlile who started sticking up trains. in Wyoming in 1916 was known as the. Robin Hood of the rails for his practice. of never taking money from women.

children or servicemen and for. occasionally redistributing a snatched. coin before fleeing when the Library of. Congress sent ethnomusicologists to. travel the country in the late 1930s to. record folk music they returned to. Washington with numerous ballads in both. English and Spanish about train. Bandits the rail companies didn't enjoy. the same populist affection they were. owned by rail Barons who engaged in. monopolistic practices and price fixing.

schemes while exposing workers and. passengers to the sort of danger that's. hard to imagine today the railroad was. the largest single cause of violent. death Mark Aldrich an economic historian. writes in his 2006 book death rode the. rails which details dismemberments. derailments Bridge collapses and run. over pedestrians in the early 20th. century nearly 12,000 people were killed. annually by trains vastly more than were.

killed by train. thieves the human geography of the West. is so entangled with the railroad as to. be indistinguishable from it entire. cities and towns exist and persist. because people organized themselves. around the train. when Charles Hodson a researcher who is. now an economics professor at Yale.

studied the effect of railroad. construction between 1868 and 1889 on. the distribution of towns in the. American West he found that post offices. a stand in for Town Health nearest to. train tracks were much likelier to still. be extent in 2010 than those a bit. farther a field these latter towns. eventually collapsed in what researchers. call the AG glomeration Shadow as people. moved and clumped together along the.

tracks by the late 19th century the. railroads had a growing Army of private. police they didn't exactly help the. railroads bolster their appeal with many. local communities these private police. forces were often supplied by the. pinkerton's national detective agency. known for hunting down train burglar and. violently breaking up union strikes in. his history of the Pinker. the historian s Paul O'Hara describes.

the agency as the apotheosis of. industrial violence and corporate power. in Gilded Age. America the legacy of using private. security to guard the movement of. freight is Alive and Well in the. modern-day supply chain too Insurance. shipping and Retail companies hire. private investigators asset recovery. teams and loss prevention Personnel many. of them former police officers. though the rail companies have their own. police forces and Interstate law.

enforcement Authority Union Pacific. Police Officers for example Patrol. 32,000 M of track in 23 States much of. the work still Falls to local law. enforcement last fall I met buddy porch. a detective from the Fontana Police. Department at a monthly meeting of the. western State's cargo theft Association. he is one of two detectives recently. assigned to Cargo theft in Fontana a. city of 200,000 or so some 50 m east of.

Los Angeles we're just being hammered. completely overwhelmed he told me the. city has been transformed by speedily. constructed prefabricated tilt up Mega. warehouses loads from semi-trucks are. being taken train cars emptied out the. entire region has been altered by. digital Commerce the Inland Empire now. has an excess of 1.4 billion Square ft. of warehouse space with plans for. Millions more it's a place run through.

by train tracks and traversed by nearly. a million trucks daily spewing carbon. dioxide and pollutants and tempting all. manner of. thievery it's a lot for Buddy porch the. technology exists to make containers. less susceptible to theft companies sell. container locking devices with GPS and. cellular connectivity that permit the. containers to be tracked at all times. sensors stuck on the freight itself can. report locations and precise conditions.

inside containers including temperature. humidity and the bumpiness of the ride. containers can be outfitted with smart. seals motion detection alarms video. surveillance and infrared Imaging. systems that can detect Intruders body. heat and yet the locks so often used to. secure containers with hundreds of. thousands of dollars worth of. merchandise inside are easy easier to. cut off than the lock I used to secure. my old beater bicycle I kept asking.

people why the answers were varied but. as far as I can tell the reason is that. in the last several decades the cost of. shipping has fallen so much that Cheap. shipping has become part of the. essential energy force pushing the. tsunami of lowcost goods across the seas. and onto our Shores a company with. 20,000 containers might decide it isn't. worth an extra $10 per container for. better locks or seals in part because.

even if they did opt for the upgraded. security who or what would respond when. the alarm goes off or when the smart. seal sends notice that it's been. breached what if the signal pings from a. train in the middle of some empty. stretch in West Texas anything that adds. to that Transportation cost including. security is typically thought of as. extraneous or unnecessary Tony P. director of security and resilience at. the multinational business consultancy.

BSI group told me after all most cargo. is insured. anyway but the insurance companies for. their part would very much like to. reduce the plundering Travelers one of. the largest cargo insurers in the. country employs 12 full-time cargo theft. investigators who travel the land. sometimes lending a sting trailer wired. with surveillance equipment to law. enforcement to claw back some of those. stolen goods they're also trying to.

educate warehousing shipping Trucking. and rail companies on how to deter. thieves in the first place talk to. anyone whose business is protecting or. insuring Freight and they will tell you. some iteration of cargo at rest is Cargo. at risk they advise truckers for example. to avoid stopping at all within the. first 200 miles from their pickup point. in case there being. followed an opened box of maker Mark.

whiskey bottles Sat by a cubicle on the. fifth floor of lapd's imposing downtown. headquarters evidence from a recently. recovered stolen truckload a cargo theft. detective cell phone rang on the other. end was an officer from a division to. the South who had received a 911 call. reporting that two men were rifling. through an Amazon truck trailer 15. minutes later when the two detectives. pulled up in their two separate cars to. the blue container with its Telltale.

swooping logo they could see that the. truck's cab was gone the container's. back doors were a jar and boxes had. Spilled Out onto the sidewalk following. a detective I eagerly climbed up into. the Container wondering if my. anticipatory excitement was akin to what. thieves feel when they steal a container. but don't yet know what their treasure. hunt will yield what I found inside were. boxes and boxes of Arm and Hammer. forever fresh cat litter it looks like a.

load of Amazon crap said the shorter. Detective still standing on the street. hands on hips peering inside a bit. deeper in I could see plastic. antiscratch cat protector couch covers. Cheerios Christmas Advent puzzles more. cat litter someone had been there before. us and had helped themselves to the. funable Super Mario fruit flavored snack. the colorful candies and ravaged. packaging were scattered across the.

floor the detectives figured someone had. probably stole in the truck popped open. the container found it rich in cat. litter and ditched it the taller. detective called someone in asset. recovery at Amazon who confirmed that. the container should have arrived in. another city 2 days earlier the. detective asked the Amazon rep if the. company was planning to come claim the. container the two of them went back and. forth for a while and until eventually. the detective told the rep that he had. 90 minutes to get someone there or the.

police would impound the container it. doesn't make sense for us to spend half. the day babysitting this thing the. detective said exasperated when he got. off the phone after a tow truck took the. container away the detectives returned. to the neighborhood police station. earlier that morning LAPD officers. patrolling the area near the abandoned. container spotted a black SUV with two. men inside that match the description. given by the 911 caller they pulled the.

vehicle over and seeing what looked like. Amazon packages inside took the men into. custody now the taller detective. interviewed them with the help of. another Spanish-speaking officer at. first the men in custody didn't want to. talk then the detective brought in. snacks and water the detective told me I. said look you're not El Chapo this isn't. the crime of the century this is just. some junk in an Amazon on. trailer one of the men started talking.

he told the detective that he was mostly. living on the streets the SUV belonged. to his brother the container was already. open when they found it a person he. didn't know offered him $20 to help. unload he and his friend took the money. and when they were done they grabbed. some spoils for themselves too which. they had stashed in his brother's tent. down by the rail road tracks the. detectives put the man who talked the. one with the brother in a police vehicle. and had him direct a patrol officer to. his brother's tent the two detectives.

followed behind till they pulled up to a. row of structures built from Plywood And. tarps along a section of seemingly. abandoned tracks near the intersection. of East Olympic Boulevard and Lemon. Street all we want is the stuff the. taller detective told the man identified. as the brother we don't care about. anyone else or anything that's going on. the man by the tent looked at his. brother in the back of of the patrol car. with one of the weariest Expressions I. have ever seen and then he started.

lugging packages from his tent a box. containing a pet grooming vacuum cleaner. two new radio controlled model airplanes. doc Martin's boots boxes overflowing. with flip-flops printer cartridges a. Cerulean blue spaghetti strap dress and. a plastic sleeve the brother disappeared. back behind the tarp door and the. shorter detective called to him bring me. the boxes I know there's more in. there once the detectives were satisfied.

that they had what they'd come for they. loaded it all into their unmarked cars. and drove away the man in the back of. the patrol car was eventually driven to. a police station where he would spend. the night in custody later the. detectives would look up all the. recovered Loot on Amazon and tally up. its total value which exceeded the. $950 minimum required for a charge of. felony Grand Theft theft in. California the Los Angeles County. District Attorney's Office declined to.

file a felony charge and referred the. case to the city attorney's office which. filed a misdemeanor. instead I left the encampment. discombobulated by the mismatch between. the perpetrators Down and Out men living. in tents stealing Goods someone else had. already nabbed and discarded and the. victim a multinational company valued at. more than 1.5 trillion dollar the stuff. had been taken unlawfully yes but part.

of the reason these companies. manufacture items for so much less in. Asia and then transport them thousands. of miles in ships and trains and trucks. is so they don't have to pay the costs. associated with adhering to. environmental and labor laws here also I. was flumix trying to imagine how a man. living in a tent would go about selling. a stolen pet groming vacuum cleaner what. even is is a pet grooming vacuum.

cleaner on my last day in Los Angeles I. drove South in my rented Chevy Spark to. take in the ports of Long Beach and Los. Angeles which appeared on the horizon at. Sunrise as a single Mega Port enveloped. in a particulate Laden golden colored. Haze it was Strangely Beautiful and a. little scary the closer I got the more. semi trucks were rumbling past me in. both directions numerous trains side by. side waited to be loaded on half a dozen.

parallel tracks lines of trucks snaked. around in no discernible pattern stacks. of chassis towered in fenced off yards. everywhere containers were in motion. massive Gantry cranes reached out over. ships to grab its steel boxes like. hungry horses one human in a puny rental. car can't take in the scale of the. global supply chain chain but even this. sliver of something so vast was enough.

to inspire. awe the four lapd's cargo theft unit. detectives had been scheduled that day. to go undercover at a mall and wander. around stores pretending to be Shoppers. Southern California had had a recent. uptick of what were being called flash. mob robberies the Versace store in the. Beverly Center was hit as was the. Nordstrom in a mall in kenoga park and. an eve San lauron in Glendale. videos from Southern California and. elsewhere were going viral that showed.

people in black ski masks swarming. stores grabbing merchandise jamming it. into large garbage bags and fleeing the. police department along with other. Regional law enforcement agencies now. had a new organized retail crimes task. force the detectives were setting up in. anticipation of the next flash mob. robbery I'd asked Alfonso Lopez former. commanding offer officer of the. commercial crimes division at the LAPD. who until recently oversaw the cargo.

theft unit detectives he is now. assistant Commander for the operations. South Bureau how he thought the overall. losses from these flash mobs compared. with the scale of theft from trains and. trucks he said cargo theft was bigger. but that didn't matter the viral flash. mom videos had snagged in the city's. psyche in the country's. psyche I pulled over into a Dusty lot to. listen to the low Roar of the port and.

watch the trucks and trains just one of. these steel boxes contained more. merchandise than a dozen flash mobbers. could ever hold but the supply chain is. hard to grasp fully with its Anonymous. looking containers rolling by giving. away so little about their contents or. destinations our Collective gaze was. shifting toward the human drama we can. see focusing instead on video. of these young people dressed like. ninjas running Full Tilt for the exit.

stolen goods spilling from their. arms.