OPPRMS Wrote: "That, and because of limited manpower that's stretched very thin and focuses on more urgent problems."

Like thievery of parked trains, theft of fuel, malicious vandalism to safety equipment, etc. I get tired of seeing the mostly talentless graffiti, but on the district I'm currently working, I'm glad to see SA forces and local fuzz getting together to break down the success of a somewhat organized ring of thieves who's M.O. (in part) was to steal a car, abandon it at a key highway crossing and let it get hit. The following intermodal trains were then broken into as they were stopped cold in the "traffic jam" that the grade crossing incident caused. This was a recurring theme for some time. It was also happening in Arizona prior to occuring here, and due to the Special Agents (some brought in from out of state) and their ad hoc team of local heat, some of these clowns were actually nailed with sufficient evidence. Most important, the problem has been quenched for the time being.

The key thing I take away with this whole charade was that I wasn't jacked by some lowlife yardbird while I was dutifully walking my train, had it been necessary to do so. Ya gotta figure if a guy is motivated to derive his income from fencing intermodal merchandise lifted from a container, then my life is obviously worth less than tossed-from-the-train inkjet printers, scatterings of tires, or fifty pound bags of elbow macaroni.

And by the way, I've seen at least three cars in the past month that have been newly painted with the reporting marks a good ten feet high up from the side sill- too high to be defaced by a rattle-can clown; the bottom of the car seems to be given up as lost ground to the defacing crew.