How supply chain crunch, limited security, idle trains made cargo in LA vulnerable to thieves

With Southern California a global hub for cargo in this e-commerce age, train cars filled with valuable goods are crisscrossing hundreds of miles of track at all hours.

But amid the supply chain congestion at local ports and elsewhere, those trains sometimes sit idle, leaving them vulnerable to thieves in urban rail yards, according to supply chain experts.

“A train at rest is a train at risk,” said Keith Lewis, vice president of operations for CargoNet, a company that tracks cargo thefts. “There’s a backlog of getting trains back to the West Coast from the East Coast. You got a lot of different supply chain issues.”