(The following article by Alex Branch was posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on November 15.)
FORT WORTH — Like modern-day Butch Cassidys, they crouch in the dust and weeds awaiting the screech of a slow-moving train.
Instead of dynamite, they carry tool bags. Instead of gold, they seek DVD players, computers and auto parts.
And instead of desolate stretches of prairie, these railroad bandits wait behind the lounges and used-car lots of East Lancaster Avenue near downtown Fort Worth.
More than a century after Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their gang, the Wild Bunch, tormented the railroad industry, authorities continue to chase train bandits.
“It’s not a new phenomenon,” said Pat Hiatte, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. “It goes all the way back to Jesse James.”
These days, such crooks operate in low-income neighborhoods in Fort Worth and Dallas, jumping aboard trains that travel slowly through urban areas. Union Pacific Railroad has identified the stretch of rail just south of Lancaster Avenue and east of Beach Street as a popular place for train jumpers. Poor neighborhoods in Dallas are even more active.
“Most people don’t realize these trains contain everything you could possibly use in a home or business: TVs, refrigerators, tires,” said Capt. Jim Beach of the Union Pacific Railroad Police. “They take anything they can easily sell on the street.”
The problem extends beyond Texas. The Association for American Railroads in Washington, D.C., estimates that railroads, which carry 40 percent of the nation’s goods, lose $9 million to $14 million a year to train burglaries.
This year, New Jersey authorities broke up what was considered one of the most lucrative train theft rings in the United States. Members of a gang known as the Conrail Boyz were indicted on charges of stealing millions of dollars worth of merchandise from freight trains. The gang sold the goods, including high-tech electronics and designer clothing, on the black market, authorities said.
Back in Texas, the FBI recently launched sting operations near El Paso to thwart Mexican bandits who cross the border to hit Union Pacific routes.
Whereas the original train robbers derailed cars, blocked the tracks or even leaped from galloping horses, today’s bandits rely on stealthier tactics, said Tom White, spokesman for the railroad association.
Trains can be more than a mile long, making it virtually impossible for the engineers to see someone jumping on, he said. Safety sometimes demands that trains slow to 5 to 10 mph in urban areas.
“It’s something every railroad has to worry about,” White said. “That’s why they have their own police forces to go out and catch these people.”
Union Pacific’s version of the Pinkerton detectives, operating in 23 states, made 10,794 arrests in 2002 of people suspected of trying to steal from trains.
Railroad police have the authority to seek search warrants and interview suspects and, because they are federally commissioned, cross jurisdictions. They often find themselves investigating the same people repeatedly, Beach said.
“We get to know how these guys work,” he said. “We’ll figure out how something got taken and say, `Hey, is this guy out of jail yet?’ Sure enough, he just got out.”
Railroad police regularly stake out high-risk areas at night. They use infrared equipment sensitive enough to provide detailed images of rats crossing the tracks from far away.
Fort Worth police sometimes assist them, Fort Worth police Sgt. Todd Plowman said. But the majority of those arrested don’t belong to organized gangs.
“There are a lot of homeless people in that area where the trains have to slow down,” Plowman said. “It’s just a crime of opportunity. They can jump on and see what they can get.”
The Conrail Boyz used highly sophisticated methods, authorities said.
“They were monitoring our radio transmissions,” said Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, one of the gang’s frequent targets. “They were figuring out where each train was coming from. Generally, trains coming from the same area were carrying the same cargo.”
Their heists included 17,496 Sony PlayStations valued at more than $5 million, Tommy Hilfiger clothing valued at $140,000 and more than 1,000 women’s blouses valued at $49,000, authorities said.
Not all gangs are this sophisticated. A Union Pacific rail that is yards away from the Mexico border near El Paso was hit regularly by Mexican bandits who, working sometimes in groups of 20, cut holes in the border fence, hopped onto trains and tossed merchandise off, said Hardrick Crawford Jr., FBI special agent in charge in El Paso.
The border fence is on a slope, so the stolen goods would simply roll into Mexico, he said.
“If they were lucky, it turned out to be high-end electronics,” Crawford said. “If they weren’t, they got toilet paper.”
Butch Cassidy wannabes might think freight trains are easy pickings, but Beach warns that the law is onto them.
“We usually know where they’re doing it, and we’re going to be there watching,” he said. “We know what’s going on.”