Video shows thousands of stolen packages, empty boxes littering L.A. railway – National | Globalnews.ca

Have you ever expected a package delivery, only to find that it was seemingly lost in the ether? It never makes it onto your porch, and the status stays stuck on “out for delivery”?

New video, captured in a Los Angeles train yard, shows what happens to at least some of the packages that never reach their final destination.

John Schreiber, a freelance photojournalist working for CBS, captured incredible footage of the rampant looting and theft that has been plaguing cargo trains in L.A.

The video shows debris as far as the eye can see – thousands of broken boxes, discarded merchandise and unopened Amazon Prime packages.

The area looks almost like a landfill, and Schreiber and his colleagues witnessed a few brazen thefts while the cameras were rolling.

Schreiber said he was prompted to head to the Lincoln Heights train yard after hearing multiple train burglaries come across the L.A. police scanner.

He spoke with Union Pacific officials while shooting his videos, who told him that the area was cleaned up about 30 days ago, so what he was shooting had only happened within the last month.

Among the packages, Schreiber shows unopened COVID-19 rapid tests, epi pens and fishing lures.

The trains stop in the area for hours, and sometimes overnight, to unload their cargo. However, sources told CBSLA that the locks used on the containers are easy to cut through.

In a statement to CBSLA, Union Pacific said they are “very concerned about the increased cargo thefts” and that they have “increased the number of…special agents on patrol.”

Indeed, Schreiber’s camera caught Union Pacific police chasing two thieves away from the area.