[KennyBlanken]

Getting caught means being charged federally and the statue carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Half the people commenting on this post don't understand that railway theft is a federal crime which is handled by federal prosecutors in federal court, and has nothing to do with the "liberal governor" or "lazy California prosecutors".

On nearly anything related to societal matters not of a technological sort, HN commenters tend to demonstrate quite a bit of ignorance of the basic facts of the matter at hand.

Also: obviously you don't just patrol 36,000 miles of track: you patrol where the thefts happen (piles of packaging by the tracks), and on the trains. Since you know the schedule of the trains, you even know when people will be trying to do the robberies...

[geoduck14]

>Getting caught means being charged federally and the statue carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Very few people (you plus one other) have mentioned that messing with interstate transportation is a federal crime. Which makes me think there is more to this that meets the eye.

Why have the news been focusing on local prosecutors if this is a federal matter? Why haven't federal prosecutors pressing charges?

[analog31]

I noticed in one article that the railroad referred to the crime as "vandalism." It could be that they are using charges such as trespassing and vandalism, rather than outright theft, to bring it under the purview of local authorities.

[coryrc]

Then why did UP bring up the LA prosecutor?

Consider you may be misinformed.

[CryptoBanker]

Easy way to shift the blame, especially given public opinion at the current moment