CHICAGO — Two people have now been charged in connection with the looting of a Union Pacific intermodal train Friday on the city’s West Side, WLS-TV reports.
Derrick Weathers, 53, and Lemar Hollingsworth, 21, are facing misdemeanor charges for theft. Weathers is also facing a felony charge for drug possession.
At least six individuals were have reported to have been arrested after a large group of people broke into containers on the stopped train on Friday afternoon and began removing items including flat screen TVs and air fryers [see “Six arrested after looting …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 12, 2024]. Some of the items were recovered; WLS reports others have said some of the stolen items are being sold online.
The Chicago Tribune reports two of those arrested had been released by Saturday. Some news reports have said the looting was going on for some time before police responded; the Tribune reports Chicago police waited more than an hour for railroad police to respond and secure the tracks.
The police response to the incident led Metra to halt operations through the area on its UP West line for more than two hours.
Didn’t it used to be a federal crime to steal from an inter-state shipment?
The FBI could have just called up the Chicago PD and got copies of their reports and had an open/closed/solved case for their stats.
Guess I was right on my previous post about having to call out the on duty railroad Special Agent. Some used to live in Indiana so a long response time could be possible if one of them was the on call guy.
UP has cut Special Agents and their duties over the years and it is now more response instead of prevent. The railroad figures it is cheaper to pay for the isolated incidents/losses incurred than to pay for a department to protect the cargo. This incident probably wouldn’t have been deemed very newsworthy if it hadn’t screwed up all the Metra trains and the large number of commuters affected.
Would have been interesting to listen to the Metra-UP morning conference call the next day explaining the reason for the major interruption of service.
“those arrested had been released by Saturday” “Chicago police waited more than an hour ”
Remember, Chicago is one of those Lefty cities, like LA and Seattle…..