I-Team: Robbing the Rails
INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) Train robberies sound like something out of the Old West. Investigators say they're happening right now, across the Coachella Valley, and far more often than most people think.
The News Channel 3 I-Team went undercover on the desert train theft network. We rode along with an undercover Union Pacific Railroad Police agent and a Riverside County sheriff's deputy. We're hiding their faces to protect law enforcement operations.
The tracks cut through Coachella, Thermal and North Shore. Investigators say criminals are watching them closely.
Look back at March 19. A Union Pacific train derailed near North Shore. Law enforcement says thieves targeted the cargo left exposed in the desert. The undercover agent says more than $1 million in goods was stolen after the derailment.
"Ripping off the furniture, like living room furniture," the deputy said. "They end up having to adjust parts of the train so they could open the doors, because they were hitting it so bad."
Just this month, investigators say thieves went after a train carrying weed trimmers through the desert. The I-Team got video, never shown publicly, of boxes recovered after that theft.
In the Mecca area, deputies recently arrested several suspects accused of targeting trains and recovered nearly $200,000 in merchandise.
"Four people actively breaking into the train, and all four were caught," the deputy said. "They didn't care that police was right there."
Investigators say crews follow trains through the desert and wait for them to slow near crossings or sidings before moving in. Some thieves are using social media to track stopped trains.
"People will take a photograph of the train, then post it on Facebook or Instagram," the deputy said. "And they're like, 'See, this train is stopped.'"
The investigation also took us inside encampments built along the tracks. Investigators say many were filled with stolen goods.
"Queen-sized bed. They had TVs," the agent said. "It was like a makeshift condo underground."
In one case, investigators say thieves took hundreds of rifles off a train. Empty rifle boxes later turned up in Mecca and Coachella.
Deputies say the danger isn't just the thefts. They say people have been killed on tracks in the area, and that trains are quieter than people expect.
"You don't hear it until it's like four or five seconds away from you," the deputy said. "By the time you look up, if you're not looking both ways — they're very silent."
The same tracks people drive past every day have become the center of a growing crime problem, and law enforcement is asking the public to pay attention.
Anyone with information about the weed-trimmer thefts or other railroad crimes can call Crime Stoppers at (760) 341-STOP. Tips are anonymous and can earn a reward of up to $2,000.
