More than 90 containers are being vandalised every day, since January 1. The cases have spiked since the rise in Christmas shopping in late December 2021.
New Delhi: The US is seeing rising cases of theft every day. According to a report by AFP, dozens of freight cars are broken into every day on Los Angeles’s railways by thieves. They take advantage of the trains’ stops to loot packages bought online. In return, they leave thousands of empty boxes and opened packages that will never reach their destinations.
The report further said that major US mail order and courier companies such as Amazon, Target, UPS and FedEx are being hit by the thefts, which have exploded in recent months. More than 90 containers are being vandalised every day, since January 1. The cases have spiked since the rise in Christmas shopping in late December 2021.
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In Los Angeles County, the rail operators have seen a 160 per cent spike since December 2020. In October 2021 alone, according to the report, the rise in cases was a whopping 356 per cent.
The thieves wait until the long freight trains are immobilized on the tracks, and then climb onto the freight containers, whose locks they easily break with the help of bolt cutters. They then help themselves to parcels, ditching any products that are difficult to move or re-sell, or are too cheap, such as Covid-19 test kits, furniture or medications, according to the report.
This has also seen a rise in another worrying trend. The cases of armed robbery and assaults of the rail operator, Union Pacific’s, employees have also risen.
More Security, Better Surveillance
Union Pacific is taking several steps to cut the menace. According to the report, the company has improved their surveillance systems by increasing the number of drones deployed. They have also recruited more security personnel to keep a track of the convoys.
In the last three months of 2021 alone, the police have arrested more than 100 people under the charges of trespassing and vandalising.
But a spokesman said that it is not showing much impact on the ground. He said that the charges against the person arrested are reduced to petty offences and they get free within 24 hours of the arrest. They even boast about it.
The report added that Union Pacific, the rail operator of the region, wrote to the Los Angeles County attorney’s office at the end of December 2020, asking them to reconsider a leniency policy introduced at the end of 2020 for such offences.
Losses Expected To Be More Than $5 Million
The report also said that according to UP, the damages from such thefts in 2021 amounted to some $5 million. This does not include the losses faced by customers. The claim amounts have also been, excluded from the above number.
The actual number is expected to be much higher.
