When we think of rail theft, most people envision Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbing trains in the American Frontier in the early 1900s. A century later, it’s still the Wild West, except today’s criminals are a nefarious combination of brazen, sophisticated, and organized and are armed with the tools, both physical and digital, to help them succeed.

Read also: U.S. Rail Freight Traffic Declines for Eighth Straight Week in December 2025

Rail cargo theft is a rapidly-escalating problem, especially in areas like Texas and California that have hundreds of miles of tracks across isolated desert terrain. High-volume ports (e.g., Los Angeles and Long Beach) and Chicago’s sprawling rail yards are also prime targets for thieves targeting high-value goods awaiting transport. According to the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), theft on rail lines and at train yards accounted for nine percent of the total confirmed cargo thefts in 2024, with 63% occurring when trains were enroute and 37% at train yards.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) estimates that more than 65,000 rail cargo thefts occurred in 2024 — a staggering 40% increase from the previous year —translating to roughly 180 cargo thefts per day. This cost major railroads more than $100M in 2024 and hit shippers hard in the form of financial losses, increased insurance premiums, and potential brand damage due to production delays, stockouts, and late shipments caused by supply chain disruptions.

Modus operandi

Rail theft can take several forms: some opportunistic thieves pilfer goods from rail cars parked in rail yards while others indiscriminately grab cartons and even entire pallets from slow-moving or stationary trains, tossing them off the train into the brush. They recover the most valuable goods and leave low-cost items behind. Evidence of these actions is hard to ignore, with rail lines in the Mohave desert littered with an assortment of empty boxes and cartons ripped open and discarded when contents were deemed low-value.

Driven by the low-risk, high-reward nature of the crime, multi-person crews — often linked to organized crime — target commercial freight trains moving through isolated stretches of track, using encrypted radios, real-time geofencing data, or basic “find my phone” apps to coordinate thefts. 

These modern-day boxcar bandits bypass locks and pop seals using portable grinders, electric saws, and bolt cutters, opening containers to inspect the contents. High-value goods such as building supplies (e.g., copper spools), electronics, and apparel — $2 million worth of Nike sneakers were stolen from trains in California and Arizona in March 2024 —  are prime targets. 

Rail cars with valuable contents are marked, often with a shoelace, so crew members know which freight to steal when the train stops. And because trains can be as long as three miles with hundreds of cars, thieves are frequently able to disappear before local authorities can respond.

The CHP calvary

Given the vulnerability of freight moving along remote rail lines in the deserts of Southern California, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) formed a task force to uncover criminal activity, recover stolen freight, and build a case against the bad actors perpetrating cargo theft. 

The CHP task force works in collaboration with railroad companies’ own law enforcement and local, state, and federal agencies. For instance, CHP partners with BNSF Railway whose specialized police force employs  a combination of boots-on-the-ground presence with tech-driven monitoring — surveillance cameras, drones, heat and thermal technology, data analysis, K9 units, BNSF police officers riding trains — to track criminal activity in the field, respond to incidents, and conduct investigations.

For containers stolen from rail yards and stolen cargo picked up in trucks at designated points along the rail lines, the task force uses digital tools, such as Descartes MyCarrierPortal™ to look for red flags at the carrier, driver, and vehicle levels and access carrier histories and bills of lading (BOL) data, as well as CargoNet intel to identify suspicious activity. 

The CHP team leverages license plate readers to uncover plate-swapping, conducts burner-phone checks, and uses the Descartes solution (in the same way brokers use the technology to safeguard their business from double brokering, cargo theft, and identity fraud) to verify contact information, look up Motor Carrier (MC) numbers, and validate vehicle identification numbers (VIN) to ensure the person behind the wheel and the truck hauling the freight are both legitimate.

What can shippers and brokers do?

Shippers and brokers may feel helpless against organized crews targeting their rail freight but there are tactics, tools, and technology that can help minimize the frequency and temper the impact of cargo theft:

• Install advanced container seals and robust locking systems, such as braided Figure-8 security cables, which are harder for thieves to tamper with.
• For double-stack trains, consider paying the additional fee to ship cargo in containers in the bottom well of rail cars; thieves target upper containers because container doors in the bottom well are more difficult to open.
• Invest in GPS tracking systems to track cargo location in real time. Consider placing IoT-enabled trackers equipped with light, temperature, and motion sensors inside containers to send alerts if container doors are opened and provide visibility into freight conditions throughout the shipping journey.

Even if the freight does make it past the rail line, it’s often then transported to trucks, and the threat is not over. When it comes to mitigating over-the-road risks, shippers and brokers can take advantage of carrier vetting and fraud protection software to help identify suspicious carrier activity and strategic theft, including: 

• Identity theft: Impersonating reputable carrier or broker brands. 
• Double brokering: Illegally passing off a brokered load to another carrier, often leaving shippers in the dark about who has possession of their freight. 
• Phishing/smishing scams: Sending fake emails/texts to trick recipients into clicking malicious links or divulging passwords or other personal information. 

• Data spoofing: Disguising and misrepresenting driver location, load status, or compliance scores. Using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) numbers to create multiple driver accounts or obscure a driver’s true identity. 

• False documentation: Forging or altering documents to misrepresent equipment or insurance coverage. 

Down the line

From the Louvre to the railroad, thieves are getting bolder, organized, and more tech-savvy. This evolution in rail theft spells trouble, both for shippers dealing with significant financial losses, coupled with higher insurance premiums and additional security costs, and for consumers facing delayed shipments or stockouts and feeling the sting of higher prices as companies pass on the cost of stolen merchandise. 

Heading into 2026, the AAR acknowledges that given the ties many bad actors have to larger criminal organizations across state lines and transnationally, breaking the rail theft cycle will require sustained attention, dedicated federal resources, and increased penalties. In addition, shippers, brokers, rail operators, law enforcement and insurers need to work together to share data, adopt advanced security solutions and fraud prevention technology, and advocate for stronger enforcement tools and harsher penalties for cargo theft and freight fraud.