Big Ed:
"Saw interviews with some who got caught. They are out in minutes.
The penalty is c rap, > just like the Judicial system here."
This is the dilemma for Union Pacific (which I assume is the sole operator of the lines in/out of the terminal).
The "new woke politics" of Los Angeles (and California) will no longer prosecute nor incarcerate thieves. If arrested, they're back out in hours. If actually brought to trial, they'll receive short sentences, if they get to trial at all. In many cases, the DA's won't even bother to press charges.
I'm thinking that the top management of UP is more akin to "James Taggart" than it is to "Dagny Taggart" (you'd have to have read Atlas Shrugged or watched the films to understand).
If anything, I sense that the widespread publicity the theft situation has received in the past week or so is only going to attract MORE thieves to the area, and more "plundering".
So... ultimately... UP must realize that the police and local government(s) will do nothing to help them. They must "help themselves".
As I suggested in an earlier post, the short-term solution will be to "restrict access" to the tracks, to make it difficult to get in, and more difficult to cart stolen merchandise out. Wall off the entire railroad if need be.
A longer-term solution will have to deal with new ways to "secure" containers once they're loaded onto the well cars.
What's needed is some kind of massive "physical block" that prevents the doors from being opened on loaded cars (even if there are no "locks" on the door handles, which can be cut). Something too large to be removed by one, two, or even three persons, but can be easily installed/removed at container terminals.
I'm thinking of a "band" that runs the entire length/width of the container. Just long enough to "fit", so that when in place the doors on either end can't be opened. It will need a couple of "cross pieces" (almost like inverted "U's") so that it can be set down on the upper container, and will rest in place by virtue of its own weight, but of course too heavy to lift or pry off. Think of a rectangular "french fry" basket, made of steel, upside-down, lowered over the top of the container.
This assumes the lower container will be "locked in the well" -- doors can't be opened because the well walls on either end prevent it.
Again, the only way the railroad company is going to win this one is to take action on their own. The city governments and "the law" in California are no longer on their side, and probably won't be again.
losangeles.cbslocal.com
