Criminals have been breaking into containers and trailer on trains for as long containers and trailers have been shipped by rail or for that matter on the highway. These robberies have been a problem for railroads and trucking firms for as long as I can remember. The reason for the news coverage is that these robberies are now happening within cities and not out in the mountain or desert areas. In addition these robberies are creating a lot of trash that everyone can see.

If you have railfanned Cajon Pass in the past 35 or 40 years or so you would have noticed the mile plus long fencing at Cajon summit and the mile plus fencing at Verdemont. This fencing was put up by the Santa Fe, now the BNSF, to help prevent stealing from trailers and containers when a train is stopped at these locations. This worked for while but then the robbers found others ways to get on the trains and places to throw off the goods from the container or trailer.

It has been suggest by lots folks that the way to stop these robberies is to put more secure doors on the trailers and containers and to use locks and doors locking mechanism that cannot be cut off, shot off, or other wise removed with out the correct key, combination, or code. But this hasn't happened because railroads and shipments think that the cost of these preventative measures would cost more than cost of paying the shippers for their stolen products.

If I were a shipper I would much rather have the product I ordered and paid for to sale to my customers and make a profit on than a payment from the shipping company and/or railroad for the cost of the product stolen months latter and make zero profit because customers went somewhere else to purchase this product.