CCTV: Los Angeles freight railway robbery hits, and more than 90 containers are damaged every day

According to CCTV Financial Report, in recent months, Los Angeles freight railway robberies have occurred frequently. As the train moved slowly near the intermodal point, many robbers took the opportunity to climb on the train, open the containers with bolt cutters and snatch the items. During the three months of the peak intermodal season in the fall of 2021, an average of more than 90 container cars were damaged per day.


The most robbed are UPS packages, FedEx packages, Amazon packages, etc. High-value express items such as home appliances are the most "popular" by the robbers, while the goods that are considered useless by the robbers (new crown detection reagents, masks, bait, epinephrine, etc.) pens, etc.) were randomly discarded beside the rails.

CNN exclaimed: "From a distance, thousands of boxes are scattered along the Unio Pacific Railroad (hereinafter referred to as "UP Company") railroad track, which looks like a scene from a disaster movie. This is not Hollywood, and they are not props These are couriers for people all over the country."


Railroad robberies rise 160% in a year
UP has bolstered its security team and partnered with local law enforcement, deploying technologies such as drones, intrusion detection systems and professional fencing. While those efforts have resulted in the arrest of hundreds of criminals, UP said less than half of the trespassers were registered and some were released in less than 24 hours.

After being caught and arraigned in district court, the criminals were charged with only one misdemeanor, such as trespassing, and released after paying a nominal fine, UP said. In the absence of any judicial deterrence or serious consequences, UP has seen a significant increase in railroad robberies, with railroad robberies in Los Angeles increasing by more than 160% since December 2020.

To avoid loss of customers, UPS and FedEx have been looking to move rail operations to other regions. UP also said it was considering changing its operating plans to avoid Los Angeles. It suggested that the current situation in Los Angeles could have a significant impact on local, state and national supply chain systems.

The reason is that, in addition to the lack of punishment measures for criminal acts by law enforcement agencies, the slow speed and long stop time of trains caused by supply chain congestion are also a major factor leading to the frequent occurrence of railway robberies. In addition, the current situation in Los Angeles is still deteriorating.

Los Angeles County, with more than 10 million residents, is the most populous county in the United States, and just last week, the Los Angeles Department of Health announced more than 2 million confirmed cases of the new crown in the county, which means that one in five people in Los Angeles is now infected. or are infected with the new coronavirus.

Even the Los Angeles Regional Police Department and Fire Department staff have more than 800 people in home isolation after testing positive for the new crown. Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti said the average recovery time for these workers to return to work is about three weeks, leading to a shortage of human resources in Los Angeles' public service.

On the port side, the Pacific Maritime Association said last week that about 800 dockworkers at ports in the West—about one-tenth of the daily labor force at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach—are unable to go to work for coronavirus-related reasons. Those absent include workers who have tested positive for nucleic acid, those who are in quarantine, and those who are awaiting test results or feeling unwell. Due to the shortage of manpower and the backlog of containers for several months, it has become the norm for more than 100 ships to wait for berthing in the port of West America.

The situation of integrated railways, seaports, and public services shows that the current situation is that the various links of the economy, trade and public services are constrained by each other, which has tied a dead end in the supply chain of Los Angeles. Unless there is a clear inflection point in the epidemic, this dilemma is likely to persist in 2022.