Mainly clear skies. Low around 75F. S winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph..
Mainly clear skies. Low around 75F. S winds at 15 to 25 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.
OMAHA — The much-publicized theft of goods from trains at the Port of Los Angeles has chugged its way into a Nebraska courthouse.
A Singapore company, Ocean Network Express, has sued Omaha-based Union Pacific over packages it says were lost or stolen during the pandemic, when train traffic slogged amid supply-chain slowdowns.
Stolen from the trains’ cargo containers: solar panels and a big shipment of L-arginine, an amino acid used to build protein, according to the lawsuits.
Ocean Network Express, identified in court documents as ONE, said it lost $166,000 worth of the amino acid after contracting with Union Pacific in June 2021 to transport it from St. Louis to the Los Angeles port, where it would then be shipped to Shanghai, China.
“The container was found at Los Angeles with doors open, the seal of the container having been breached during Union Pacific’s rail carriage of it,” the lawsuit alleges.
In its second lawsuit, ONE said it was shipping 360 pieces of solar panels from China to Salt Lake City, via the Port of Los Angeles, on March 28, 2021.
On June 7, 2021, the lawsuit says, Union Pacific found the container breached and the solar panels gone. Total loss: $16,000.
“The panels were pilfered during Union Pacific’s custody of the container,” the lawsuit alleges.
Union Pacific has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. A spokesman Thursday said that railroad officials are “aware of the lawsuits filed by Ocean Network Express and are still reviewing the information.”
ONE’s lawsuits concern a fraction of at least $5 million in inventory theft/losses that Union Pacific reported in 2021. The railroad transports billions of dollars in goods each year.
After video and photos showed piles of packages strewn alongside the tracks in the Port of Los Angeles in December, Union Pacific said it was considering bypassing the port. In a December letter to the Los Angeles County district attorney, the railroad said it had experienced a 160% increase in rail theft in Los Angeles County in 2021. In the last three months of 2021, the railroad said, an average of 90 containers were compromised per day.
The railroad, which has its own police force and 1,600 employees covering 275 miles of railroad track in Los Angeles County, said it was contemplating diverting traffic to avoid “organized and opportunistic criminal theft.” Railroad employees sometimes found themselves in confrontations with looters, leading to assaults and safety concerns, the railroad said.
The railroad called on Los Angeles police and prosecutors to do more to combat the crime. In January, railroad officials said they were “making headway” in stopping criminals.
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The Union Pacific Railway Station looking north and northwest from South Ninth Street on Forrest Hill circa 1896.
President William Taft arrives at Union Station on April 6, 1908.
Union Station as seen in 1909.
Union Station in 1909 showing a Burlington train in the foreground and Union Pacific and Chicago and Northwestern Trains in the background.
President William H. Taft in the back seat of a car at Omaha's Union Station on Sept. 9, 1909. Nebraska Governor George Sheldon is on the left.
Union Station on March 22, 1927. Officials announced the construction of a new Union Station on March 31, 1929, which replaced the building seen here.
Construction of a new Union Station Union Station was announced on March 31, 1929. The progress is seen here on Aug. 1, 1930.
Union Station, shown under construction in September 1930.
Two unidentified men carry the giant padlock and golden key on Jan. 8, 1931, that Mayor Metcalfe used to open the door at the new Union Station the following week. The lock was designed and constructed by C.K.P. Ronberg, cabinet shop foreman at Union Pacific headquarters, in collaboration with Jack A. Bristol. It was said to be the largest padlock ever used in Omaha for any purpose.
Mayor Metcalfe holding the golden key that he unlocked the padlock at the main entrance of the new Union Station on Jan. 15, 1931.
President Herbert Hoover at Union Station, shaking hands with WE McDonnell, a Fairmont Creamery truck driver, on Nov. 6, 1932.
Passenger train service at Union Station in 1943.
A group of soldiers at Union Station Service Men's Center on July 29, 1942.
Sixth and seventh grade students from Columbian School made 372 hard-boiled eggs and 1,112 homemade cookies and delivered them to the Union Station's Service Men Center on Jan. 17, 1943, after reading a World-Herald story about drop in food donations to the center. Other Colombian rooms expect to make similar donations as part of the "Schools At War" program.
Eleanor Anne Wahl, of Kimball, NE is awed by the 42 1/2 foot Oregon fir she saw at Union Station on Dec. 17, 1957. The tree bears 450 lights and 75 lbs. of tinsel.
Looking eastward from the parking plaza of Union Station on Dec. 18, 1953.
Looking eastward from the parking plaza of Union Station on Dec. 18, 1953.
Christmas at Union Station on Dec. 25, 1953.
Families sing Christmas carols around the tree at the lighting ceremony on Dec. 22, 1977. Among those attending the event were the Jim Mitchell family, including Karen, 4, on her father's shoulders, and daughters Marlo, 9, and Joanne, 7, joined by Mrs. Mitchell's brother Danny Coughron, 8.
The Union Station soda fountain in 1985.
Mike Longsdorf of Neon Products Co. attaches banners proclaiming the Christmas at Union Station event to a pole near 18th and Mason Streets on Dec. 4, 1986.
It's a tight squeeze as Union Pacific worker John Mumm watches the Christmas tree being pulled through the door on Nov. 20, 1995.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of the Interior recognized the Union Station building as a National Historic Landmark.
Originally published on omaha.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
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