Thief targeting California and Arizona desert freight trains for $2 million Nike

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The thief aims to freight trains, crossing the deserts of California and Arizona, a series of bold robberies that result in the theft of new Nike sneakers worth more than $2 million, including many that have not yet entered the retail market. According to officials and court documents.

In the January 13 robbery in Palin, Arizona, it was suspected that air brake hoses were cut on the BNSF freight train and stood out with more than 1,900 pairs of unissued Nikes (unissued Nikes worth more than $440,000). Many of the shoes are Nigel Sylvester X Air Jordan 4s that will not be open to the public until March 14 and are expected to retail for $225 per pair, the complaint said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, since March last year, authorities are investigating at least 10 robberies against BNSF trains in remote areas of the Mojave Desert. According to investigators, all but one of them led to the theft of Nike sneakers.

11 people charged with theft pleading from January 13 pleaded not guilty and were ordered to be detained until trial, and the Arizona District Court judge concluded that the defendants could escape the risk of authorities.

All 11 defendants were charged with possession or receiving goods stolen from interstate freight. Ten out of 11 are Mexicans illegally in the United States. The other defendant was a Mexican citizen in the United States in an asylum lawsuit.

Keith Lewis, vice president of operations at Verisk's Cargonet, said thieves usually make merchandise on the Interstate 40 rail line by boarding slow-moving trains, for example, when changing tracks and opening containers.

Lewis told The Times that thieves are sometimes brought to valuable goods by employees working in warehouses or truck companies.

The suspect's accomplices in the “following vehicle” tracking the railway car. According to Special Agent Brynna Cooke, cited in the affidavit filed in the federal court, the loot threw it away after it stopped — or a scheduled dock.

Theft of cargo lost six or six largest freight railroads in the United States due to the combination of the value of stolen goods and the cost of repairing iron trucks, and theft of more than $100 million has become more organized and complex. The American Railway Trade Group Association estimates that the number of thefts last year was about 65,000 nationwide.

The railway has invested millions of dollars in measures to prevent such theft, but it is not easy to limit access to more than 140,000 miles of tracks across the country. It travels through remote rural areas and through the hearts of many cities, carrying millions of cargo, from bulk commodities such as coal and cereals to raw materials such as rock. Automotive and metal transport containers are almost filled with almost imaginable or exported products.

The Railway Trade Group said additional federal enforcement and tougher penalties are needed to stop theft, which is a chronic problem. Railway estimates that only about 1 out of every 10 theft attempts result in arrests, and many of the arrests are repeat offenders. A railway even reported arrests of the same person five times a day.

The BNSF and other major freight railroads in the Western Western Pacific did not immediately respond to Associated Press inquiries about the theft, but the issue was something the industry was dealing with.

In a statement to the Times, the BNSF said its internal police force could share information with local law enforcement and prosecutors.

The company said its staff were instructed not to face thieves but to report incidents. However, the crew rarely encountered them because the train was too long and the thief carefully escaped the detection.

The complaint said the suspect was caught in some box tracking equipment during the January 13 robbery.

In another case, the BNSF train arrived at an emergency stop near Hackbury, Arizona on November 20, according to a complaint filed in the Phoenix Federal Court. The complaint states that deputies in Mohaf County stopped a whiteboard van and saw the area leave the area and found about 180 pairs of air-unissued Jordan 11 Retro Legend Legend Blue sneakers worth $41,400. The driver pleads not guilty to possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate freight.

Investigators also recovered a total of $346,200 in the Newrk Air Force Jordans following two BNSF train thefts in April and June, according to documents obtained by the Times. Two other cases of the BNSF freight train stolen near Kingman and Seligman in Arizona resulted in the theft of $612,000 Nike and eight arrests last year, according to federal criminal lawsuits.

In 2022, thieves raided cargo containers on trains near downtown Los Angeles for months, taking away packages belonging to the Americans and leaving tracks covered by abandoned boxes. Bold theft prompted authorities and freight companies to strengthen security in the region.