Police investigating freight train burglary along Metra UP-W line in Bellwood, Illinois
Police were investigating Tuesday after a freight train was burglarized in west suburban Bellwood, Illinois.
This is far from the first time such a thing has happened.
CBS Skywatch was over the scene about halfway between the Bellwood and Berkeley stops on the Metra Union Pacific-West line where there was a visible police presence. Metra issued an alert that the train scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 6:10 a.m. was stopped due to the police activity.
Police were called to the scene for reports of a burglary in progress. Both Bellwood and Metra police officers were investigating how someone got into the shipping containers.
Boxes of merchandise were strewn across the Metra tracks. Officers were seen throwing them off.
The investigation forced trains on the UP-W line to stop for a time, but were moving again later in the morning. Metra warned that trains operated out of sequence and with intermittent stopping due to the police activity after the incident.
"In all my years living on the West Side, I've never seen a freight train parked over the viaduct where people are actually going into it," said Princess Shaw, who snapped pictures of thieves opening the cargo and taking boxes out. "The longer they sit — sometimes they're there for prolong periods of time — the more vulnerable and more attractive they are to criminals."
Union Pacific said over the past few years, it has taken aggressive steps to safeguard its customers' cargo — including strengthening its infrastructure and deploying technology to surveil tracks and rail yards.
Former Chicago Police First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio said the train was likely stalled — which makes the cargo items sitting ducks.
"The longer they sit, sometimes they're there for prolonged periods of time, the more vulnerable and more attractive they are to criminals," he said.
Riccio said the burglary of a freight train is an easy operation for criminals too.
"They're easy to get through. Anybody with a bolt cutter from a hardware store can walk up and snap that lock, open the back of the gate, and go in and a see what's inside of it," Riccio said, "so they're easy targets."
Freight train burglaries have made the headlines in Chicago several times over the past couple of years.
In January, thieves ripped open shipping containers on a Union Pacific freight train near Austin Boulevard and Lake Street, where Chicago's Austin neighborhood meets Oak Park.
In October of last year, burglars broke into several shipping containers on a freight train in the same area in an hours-long daylight heist. The thieves were caught on camera pulling flatscreen TVs out of the back of a freight train car, walking with them to waiting cars, sometimes even passing a parked Chicago police unit with its lights on.
In the October incident, police sources said Chicago police officers waited more than an hour for Union Pacific officers to respond and secure the tracks.
In August of last year, a Union Pacific freight train was burglarized near Lawler Avenue and Kinzie Street in the Austin neighborhood, again forcing the Metra Union Pacific West Line to a halt in Oak Park.
Riccio said unfortunately, freight trains will continue to be burglarized unless steps are taken to secure the trains — such as adding private security to watch the trains when they are stalled.
"They can certainly place cameras up, and cameras are great to have," Riccio said, "but they identify people and vehicles after the crime has occurred. Physical security is always the best."
He said the stolen merchandise typically ends up for resale on social media or in pawn shops.
