Train Burglaries Cause Union Pacific, Shipping Companies to Consider Avoiding LA

A person carries items collected from the train tracks as a Union Pacific locomotive passes through a section of Union Pacific train tracks littered with thousands of opened boxes and packages stolen from cargo shipping containers, targeted by thieves as the trains stop in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Instead of making train burglars think twice by threatening jail time, Los Angeles County has made the nation’s largest rail freight company reconsider sending goods through the area, according to a letter from the company.

Union Pacific (UP) sent a letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón stating that train burglaries in his jurisdiction increased by 356 percent from October 2020 to October 2021.