Train Robbery for Nikes

[Briar Lee]

Talk about a first world problem.

Train heists in remote desert areas of the West have netted millions in Nike shoes

In 2025, robbers aren’t going for gold or money on trains. They're targeting Nike shoes and electronics in heists that sound straight out of the Wild West.

www.usatoday.com

When Jesse and Frank robbed trains they robbed express trains and mail cars and took pocket watches.

How do you move two million dollars worth of hot Nikes?

Sing one Boxcar Willie!

This was a rather premeditated series of train robberies, wasn’t it?.

Can you imagine the planning?

 

[telescopes]

Talk about a first world problem.

Train heists in remote desert areas of the West have netted millions in Nike shoes

In 2025, robbers aren’t going for gold or money on trains. They're targeting Nike shoes and electronics in heists that sound straight out of the Wild West.

www.usatoday.com

When Jesse and Frank robbed trains they robbed express trains and mail cars and took pocket watches.

How do you move two million dollars worth of hot Nikes?

Sing one Boxcar Willie!

This was a rather premeditated series of train robberies, wasn’t it?.

Can you imagine the planning?

Not really. I know that area very well. The trains are left stationary for extended periods on the secondary rails. They just sit there in the middle of open, empty, and cast desert areas with no one around. The tracks run parallel to the two lane highway. On the other side of the road from the tracks are various places to park trucks out of the way where passing motorist - who wander by every once and a while - won’t think a thing. I’ve always thought and wondered why the trains are parked so carelessly and unguarded. I guess my thoughts weren’t too far off the mark.

 

[BingBong]

That'll larn 'em to be careless. Next time, they'll send all the left shoes on one train and all the right shoes on another.

 

[dd57chevy]

So , then what ? Sell them on E-bay ?

 

[telescopes]

Next time I am driving by where the robbery took place, I’ll post some pics of what the other side of the road looks like - A mile long stretch of road with pairs of shoes tied together at the lace, all hanging from trees and fence posts. I am not joking.

 

[Briarcutter]

So , then what ? Sell them on E-bay ?

More than likely..... I doubt ebay cares anything about the source, just so long as they get their fees.

 

[telescopes]

Here’s a YouTube video someone posted of a part of that area.

 

[Brad H]

Someone did a train robbery, just for kicks.

 

[Sigmund]

Young people will pay crazy money for certain Nike models. If they are in that vein just sit on them a while and get weathy. There are tons of online ways to move a pair of shoes.

 

[Briar Lee]

Here’s a YouTube video someone posted of a part of that area.

Part of the Jesse James legend was he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.

But the current train thieves aren’t leaving free shoes for the poor.

That, is a shoe tree.

A fascinating part of our culture I’ve not heard of.

Rants from the Hill: Harvesting the Desert Shoe Tree - High Country News

“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. Rants from the Hill is now a FREE podcast! Listen to an audio performance of this essay, here. You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or through Feedburner for...

www.hcn.org

It would only work in deserts.

 

[Briar Lee]

Young people will pay crazy money for certain Nike models. If they are in that vein just sit on them a while and get weathy. There are tons of online ways to move a pair of shoes.

Ruminations on prosperity

Walmart sells wonderful cloth shoes for $20 and good boots for $30.




For the sake of vanity people will participate in train robbery after the fact, to buy new $225 shoes for several times what they could buy good shoes for at a Walmart.

And people risk hard prison time, to steal shoes that cost anybody an hour or two’s pay to just go buy at Walmart.



The Carter Family made a song about a shoeless newsboy in the Great Depression.

People have forgotten shoeless poverty ever existed.

 

[dd57chevy]

Talk about a first world problem.

Yes , vanity .

I guess some styling is ok , but shoes are just shoes .

Some of us need a little arch support , but they are basically needed to protect your feet from sharp stuff .

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

LOL, not in favor of crime but . . . haven't bought a Nike product for over 20 years.

 

[anotherbob]

So , then what ? Sell them on E-bay ?

there is a huge secondary market for Nikes. Including custom shoes. Like altered or painted on. In poorer American communities shoes are a big status symbol and can be sold person to person. E-bay wouldn't even need to come into the picture.
Neat thing from a crime prospective it's not even that suspect for someone to have a ton of these shoes for sale.
Almost forgot might also involve a large insurance pay out.

 

[anotherbob]

LOL, not in favor of crime but . . . haven't bought a Nike product for over 20 years.

o.k. you just passed BriarLee in the running for prime suspect. Something about the way I imagined you giving a big wink when you typed "bought".
Thankfully for all of us I am not allowed to stop crime anymore.

 

[atwaterville]

I better swoosh over to back alleys here in downtown LA to see if I can find a few pairs for cheap...

JK. I refuse to pay the Nike tax even if they're stolen. My wife on the other hand...

 

[wyfbane]

All that wasted child labor.

 

[renfield]

About a year ago one one of the Virtual RailFan cameras I saw a guy working to open the door on a container on a moving train near Hesperia, California. Probably looking for food to feed his family....

Last year the railyards in parts of California were feet deep in boxes and packaging that thieves discarded after looting containers. Knowing you won’t get prosecuted makes it a low risk proposition.

 

[Briarcutter]

Knowing you won’t get prosecuted

Why wouldn't they be prosecuted?

 

[renfield]

Local D.A.s soft on property crimes.

On more than one occasion citizens recorded the thefts and were surprised to find a lack of interest when they went to turn in the recordings. No point in tracking down the perps if they’re just going to be let free.

I’d have thought that theft on a railway might come under Federal jurisdiction but apparently not.