Police found an estimated $100,000 worth of items stolen from Union Pacific Railroad trains and stashed among bushes at homeless encampments along railroad tracks in Pomona late last week, continuing what has recently become a weekly trend of recovering items nabbed from parked trains, authorities said.
Though the items are routinely found at encampments, homeless people are not suspected in the thefts as police said they believe the thieves likely belong to organized criminal rings who use these encampments to conceal their spoils, said Sgt. Brad Paulson, of Pomona police’s Quality of Life Unit.
“We do find remains of a lot of the stuff in the transient camps, but no evidence to show that the homeless are actually doing it,” Paulson said.
Most of the thefts and later recovery of stolen items happen between Humane Way and Temple Avenue, a largely remote and hidden area where the tracks wrap around a hill, Paulson said. Only a few businesses and homes have a view of the spot.
This past Saturday, members of the Pomona Homeless Encampment Action Response Team doing cleanups at encampments in that area found a huge stash of brand new vehicle tires, small kitchen appliances, auto parts, clothing, shoes, and cleaning supplies, Pomona police said in a statement.
The team is a set of officers and public works crews who clear homeless encampments on city property and camps in high fire areas, offer services to homeless people and hold their property for 90 days, said Aly Mejia, a police spokesperson.
The crew contacted Union Pacific Railroad police, who confirmed that the items had been stolen from a Union Pacific train, Pomona police said. The items were returned to the railway, which has yet to give an estimated value of the goods.
It is possible the estimate given by Pomona police may be higher than the items’ actual value, said Susan Stevens, spokesperson for Union Pacific. The railyway’s police are continuing to investigate the string of thefts and will work with Pomona police to deter further incidents, Stevens said.
Throughout this year, since April and May, Paulson said cleanup crews have found a host of items such as furniture, refrigerators, toaster ovens, coffee makers, alcohol, medical supplies—enough to fill several pickup trucks or half a cargo container—all of which were confirmed to be stolen from Union Pacific trains.
But police had yet to see a haul as large and valuable as Saturday’s where the brand new tires, intended for SUVs, ran at $200-$400 each, Paulson said.
The thefts likely occur when eastbound trains are parked near Humane and Temple as they wait for westbound trains to pass through, Paulson said. The trains and their railroad cars can sit idle for 20 minutes, or as long as one or two hours. The railroad cars can stretch up to a mile, making it difficult for conductors to keep an eye on their loads.
“It’s a crime of opportunity,” Paulson said. “They break into these cars and grab whatever they can.”
Though police have caught several thieves in the fact earlier this year, no arrests have been made tied to the most recent thefts, Paulson said.
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$100,000 in stolen property found in Pomona homeless camps near tracks, though homeless not suspected in thefts - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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