Los Angeles | Guns were found in the looted wagons

(Los Angeles) “Dozens of guns” have been stolen from looted freight cars in Los Angeles in recent months as trains lay on the tracks, the city’s police chief said.

“People were breaking into these containers and stealing guns, dozens of guns,” police chief Michel Moore said at a meeting, the remarks of which were reported by the newspaper on Wednesday. Los Angeles Times.

“This has been a source of great concern for us” for safety in the city, assured Mr. Moore.

Images of thousands of ripped open boxes and packaging strewn on railroad tracks near the city center drew authorities’ attention last week to the looting, which involves most of the major U.S. distance selling and couriers (Amazon, Target, UPS, FedEx, etc.).

The thieves take advantage of the fact that the long railway convoys are immobilized on the tracks to climb on the containers of goods of which they break the locks. They then only have to help themselves in parcels, leaving behind them in an impressive bric-a-brac products that are difficult to resell or too cheap, which will never reach their destination.

“These are images that look like a third world country,” exclaimed California Governor Gavin Newsom after visiting the scene with reporters to express his outrage.

“What we saw here is not acceptable,” he said, before joining the cameras in front of the cleaning teams working on site.

Since December 2020, the rail operator Union Pacific (UP) whose convoys are targeted has recorded a 160% increase in thefts in Los Angeles County. “In October 2021 alone, the increase reached 356% compared to October 2020,” said the operator in a letter to local authorities sent to AFP.

The phenomenon has taken off again with the peak of activity linked to Christmas shopping. According to figures reported by UP, more than 90 containers were vandalized on average each day in Los Angeles County in the last quarter of 2021.

The operator, which manages nearly 450 km of tracks in Los Angeles County, estimates the cost of the damage suffered in 2021 at around five million dollars, an amount which does not take into account the losses of the customers affected. by these flights.