Wild West 2025: Audacious Train Robberies Reported in Mojave Desert
Believe or not, the target is Nike sneakers. The monetary loss to the train companies is staggering, and the number of incidents jumped a whopping 40% during the last year of the Biden administration.
A series of audacious train robberies has been reported in the Mojave Desert, most of them targeting freight trains carrying Nike sneakers. At least 10 heists have occurred since March 2024, with all but one involving the theft of expensive footwear.
Millions of dollars of merchandise have been stolen since last year.
The thieves stealthily board eastbound freight trains, hiding out until they reach lonely stretches of the Mojave Desert or high plains far from towns. They slash an air brake hose, causing the mile-long line of railcars to screech to an emergency stop.
Then, they go shopping.
That’s the modus operandi described by investigators in a string of at least 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in California and Arizona since last March. All but one resulted in the theft of Nike sneakers, their combined value approaching $2 million, according to investigators.
New sneaker releases may have touched off at least some of the recent incidents. In Perrin, Ariz., thieves allegedly cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train on Jan. 13 and unloaded 1,985 pairs of unreleased Nikes worth more than $440,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Many were Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4s, which won’t be available to the public until March 14 and are expected to retail at $225 per pair, the complaint states.
Eleven suspects were caught because of the placement of tracking devices with the shoes. Their nationality is what you would expect.
Eleven people were charged in the Jan. 13 burglary with possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment. All 11 have pleaded not guilty and were all ordered detained until trial. Ten are Mexicans who were in the United States illegally. Another defendant is a Mexican citizen who was in asylum proceedings in the United States, authorities said in court records.
The suspects in the Jan. 13 heist were caught with the help of tracking devices that were inside some of the boxes, the complaint says.
It turns out the thieves are sometimes tipped off to valuable shipments by workers at warehouses or trucking firms. The monetary loss to the train companies is staggering, and the number of incidents jumped a whopping 40% during the last year of the Biden administration.
The suspects are aided by accomplices in “follow vehicles,” which track the rail cars. The loot is tossed off the train after it comes to a halt — either for a scheduled stop or because an air hose has been cut, according to Brynna Cooke, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent cited in affidavits filed in federal court.
Thefts from cargo trains cost the nation’s six largest freight railroads more than $100 million last year because of a combination of the value of the stolen goods and the cost of repairs to railcars the thieves damaged, and the problem is getting worse in recent years as the thefts have become more organized and sophisticated. The Association of American Railroads trade group estimates that the number of thefts jumped roughly 40% last year to 65,000 nationwide.
The California Highway Patrol caught a gang of desert bandits who had allegedly stolen $200,000 worth of Nikes.
Some of the shoes may have ended up in Chicago. Earlier this month, a warehouse full of stolen sneakers was recently discovered in Chicago, and a man was arrested and charged with felony theft.
A Chicago man was arrested last week after investigators reportedly discovered about $1 million worth of stolen Nike and New Balance shoes in a warehouse he had sub-leased.
Erick Lujano Bautista, 26, has been charged with felony theft.
What we know:
…In January, Organized Retail Crime investigators discovered that stolen Nike shoes were being kept at a warehouse in the 1500 block of South Western Avenue. The space was found to be sub-leased by Lujano Bautista.
On Jan. 31, investigators executed a search warrant at the warehouse, recovering approximately $1 million worth of stolen Nike and New Balance shoes.
Hopefully, more serious minded leaders and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Transportation will improve the numbers over the next year.
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Comments
“In Perrin, Ariz., thieves allegedly cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train on Jan. 13”
Wonder whose used sneakers the folks at the LA Times are smoking?
There is no such place as Perrin, Arizona.
I found a Perrin Ranch. I bet the thieves stole some horses from there and ran the train down on horseback.
Yuh — there’re a bunch of Perrin Draws and Perrin Tanks between Williams and Ash Fork, but that area is hardly a deserted setting for train robberies. It’s a damn interstate.
The track departs from the interstate and with I40 nearby it would be a good place for this as it’s a long grade into Flagstaff so the train is not moving fast.
Perrin Ranch is north of Williams, AZ and BNSF track from California go’s right through it so that might be where the author was referencing.
Thanks for your post henrybowman. I have been looking for a new example of ignoring the forest because of a tree.
Gell Mann Syndrome is a personal forest of mine.
“….thieves sometimes tipped off to valuable shipments by workers at warehouses.”
….thieves easily caught because they were not tipped off about tracking devices in the shipments.
The same should be done with illegal criminals, embedded in a location that it would be very difficult to remove without crippling the perp. That is just the tip of an iceberg of possibilities.
My Grandfather worked as RR Policeman from 1925 to the.eve of WWII when his NG unit was mobilized and then post war as a land agent for the L&N. The stories he told me as an adult about the methods they used to ‘deter’ theft, squatters and other acts against the RR were pure savagery. IOW maybe these folks are lucky the RR is just choosing to call in the cops not deal with it themselves.
I was just going to write about the old RR police. Yes indeed, if you were caught where you weren’t supposed to be, whether you had robbed anything or not, you got the beat-down of your life.
From what I was told the beat down/curb stomping was only the warm up, not the main event. Just a hundred years or so ago but truly a different era. The RR was a good job. Back then they took care of their employees earning the loyalty of the Men working for them, especially so during the Depression.
I have mentioned many mentors when I was young, depression and WW2 veterans. They had a lot of stories, booby traps, and blowing things up, introducing low life to 12 G shot guns loaded with rock salt. I had a blind friend who became a judge. when he was in college he was hired to tutor another student who was shot in the face with rock salt, blind and unable to transfer short to long term memory. An extreme consequence of vandalizing property.
Nike sneakers are garbage as is the company. I wouldn’t give 2 cents for them especially since we are going to stop minting pennies.
Opening container trains is rampant and old. They stopped using the freight yard in Los Angeles in favor of one in Barstow with less outdoor population.
There’s still boarding slow moving freights and tossing boxes off the train to be rounded up later, wherever freights are moving slowly enough.
RR needs to get West and Gordon outta retirement.
They’re just here to work….
Just robbing the trains Americans won’t.
Why does the government not take its job seriously and focus on this and stop it. Deterrence would go a long way.
using at least rubber bullets. Pain is a great educator, especially youg punks who might change.
are sometimes tipped off to valuable shipments by workers at warehouses or trucking firms
Gee, I wonder if any of those employees share the nationalities or legal status of the train robbers?
Also, the better way to stop these thieves is to shoot them and leave them in the desert. Rent some Pinkerton men and be done with it,
I suddenly find myself whistling “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and wanting to take a trip to Bolivia.
Who might they be…..Irish Mafia?
After a series of mail train robberies in the 1920’s, Marines were detailed to guard the mail trains with shoot-to-kill orders. Need I mention that the robberies immediately ceased.
Deserts must be a popular location for train robbers. My only experience was train from Puno to Cusco, Peru; 4 Toyota pick up trucks chasing the train, firing automatic weapons. After the train stopped, the British tourists got out and started recording with video cameras. I think they thought it was a performance for tourists.
I live in the High Desert of So Cal and have seen the train thieves’ news reports. The trains are very long (usually over a mile in length), and they pass through the Cajon Pass (Along the I15 Corridor north of San Bernardino). The grade along the Cajon is dangerous, and cutting brake lines puts many people at risk. (A train brake failure in 1989 was a disaster for San Bernardino residents). It is certainly an inside job. The trains haul a lot of cargo; it takes someone familiar with the load contents to know where the shoes are located. BNSF has had Pinkerton Guards along parts of the pass to watch out for train robbers. It feels like the wild west sometimes.