Union Pacific crews worked to clear tracks on Sunday, Jan. 16, a day after a derailment snarled rail lines in Lincoln Heights — near an area where thousands of empty boxes were left behind by cargo thieves.
Thieves have been raiding cargo containers aboard trains nearing downtown Los Angeles for months, taking packages belonging to people across the U.S. and leaving the tracks blanketed with discarded boxes.
It wasn’t clear if the derailment was the result of debris left behind by cargo thieves, but images from the scene showed the ground littered with empty boxes from companies such as UPS and Amazon.
The packages are from retailers including Amazon, REI and others, CBSLA reported Thursday. The sea of debris includes items that the thieves apparently didn’t think were valuable enough to take.
“At this time, there is no estimated time for completion (of the derailment cleanup) and the cause remains under investigation,” Union Pacific spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said. “No one was injured.”
The derailment occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of San Pablo Street and Valley Boulevard, which was then blocked indefinitely, according to USC, which has its Health Science Campus nearby.
A total of 17 cars derailed, Union Pacific told KTLA.
Union Pacific has asked the L.A. County District’s Attorney’s Office to prosecute anyone arrested for the crimes.
“Some cases presented to our office by Union Pacific have been filed, such as burglary and grand theft, while others have been declined due to insufficient evidence,” the DA’s Office said in a statement provided to ABC7. “We make charging decisions based on the evidence. Our office takes Union Pacific’s concerns seriously and hopes to discuss this issue more in the coming weeks.”
Chaotic scenes have been witnessed on rail lines in recent weeks.
Last week, while CBSLA cameras were on the scene, one person was spotted running off with a container used to hold small packages, and a Union Pacific railroad police officer was spotted pursuing two other people who were apparently going through packages.
The scene was the same in November, when NBC4 showed thousands of boxes discarded along the tracks lined with homeless encampments northeast of downtown in the Lincoln Park area.
Union Pacific said in a statement to CBSLA that the railroad was concerned about increased cargo thefts in California.
“We have increased the number of Union Pacific special agents on patrol, and we have utilized and explored additional technologies to help us combat this criminal activity. We also will continue to work with our local law enforcement partners and elected leaders,” the railroad said.
Amazon said it was directing inquiries to police. The United Parcel Service declined to comment on investigations into the cargo thefts but said it was cooperating with authorities.
“The safety of our customers’ goods and our employees is our highest priority,” UPS said in a statement.
The retail supply line has been beset by problems amid the enduring coronavirus pandemic.
As the COVID-19 outbreak hit the half-way point in its first year, in summer 2020, online shopping skyrocketed, with consumers who could no longer go out to eat, go to the movies or a baseball game, or even travel using their disposable income to fix up houses, create in-home offices and gyms, and invest in electronic entertainment.
That led to a cargo surge, during which the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach regularly broke container records.
But that surge also nearly crippled the supply chain, creating a massive backlog of shipped goods.
The twin ports have labored for months to ease that backlog, which crowded the docks with mammoth stacks of cargo containers and forced ships to wait for days and sometimes weeks before they could dock. The backups of container ships and other issues have caused some retail shortages and thrust both ports into the national spotlight.
President Biden’s administration officials, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, have been involved in efforts to work through and solve the problems. Port staff and federal officials, Port of L.A. spokesman Phillip Sanfield said, have met via Zoom meetings conducted three times a week. The longshore union, terminal operators and ocean carriers have also been involved in discussions about how to ease the supply chain bottleneck.
The collaborations have led to expanded gate hours, a new ship queueing system and fees on companies whose import containers linger at marine terminals.
The ports, however, have repeatedly delayed implementing that fee, initially set to go into effect Nov. 1. The charges, if they go into effect, will begin at $100 per container, increasing by $100 per container each day.
The ports of LA and Long Beach are also set to impose a similar fee on empty containers that remain at terminals for at least nine days. That fee, which both harbor commissions must OK, is scheduled to begin on Jan. 30.
There were more than 72,000 empty containers on LA marine terminals and near-dock yards, port officials said last week. They said their goal is to bring the number of empties down to 50,000 by the end of this month.
Staff writers Quinn Wilson and Donna Littlejohn; the Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.
