Los Angeles County, California has seen a sharp rise in the number of attacks on freight trains to steal goods. Raids much commented on by the American press.
“Photos and videos showing Los Angeles County railroad tracks littered with empty boxes and litter have spread on social media”, notice CNN, while the Los Angeles Times describe “a tornado of torn packaging, ripped cardboard boxes, shredded envelopes”. These scenes are the result of a “spectacular upsurge in thefts against convoys of goods” in this American state, explains CNN, specifying that the trains concerned carry parcels from companies such as UPS, Amazon or FedEx.
the Los Angeles Times went to the scene of a theft committed on Saturday January 15 in the Lincoln Heights district, where several looters were still looking for their happiness among the debris. “Everything comes by train, lists a 37-year-old man interviewed on the spot by the daily: cell phones, Louis Vuitton handbags, designer clothes, toys, lawnmowers, machinery and power tools”. The thieves open all the packages, keeping only the valuables and throwing the rest away – which explains the scattering of the packages on the rails.
- The images of the rails after a looting in Los Angeles, relayed by the local channel CBS17 :
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If these thieves “attack convoys in a way that evokes the old tradition of stagecoach attacks”, comment on it Los Angeles Times, these offenses are “powered by very contemporary realities, starting with the rise of e-commerce and the fact that Southern California is a freight hub”.
Chain CBS News emphasizes on her the impact of these thefts, which come on top of the crisis that has already affected supply chains in the United States for several months, in connection with the strong demand for consumer goods in the context of the health crisis. While 90 containers would be the target of these raids each day, the firm Union Pacific – one of the largest railway companies in the country – plans to change the route of its trains to avoid passing through Los Angeles County.