Local News in Brief : VCRs Stolen From Train
Looters ambushed a Southern Pacific freight car as it moved slowly through South-Central Los Angeles and stripped it of 50 videocassette recorders, police said.
Only 35 of an estimated 85 Korean-made players bound for a Memphis, Tenn., warehouse remained when the scavengers were gone Thursday, police said. The VCRs retail for about $150 each. Two men were arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property.
“People were lining the street like it was a Christmas parade,” Los Angeles Police Officer Raymond Castro said. “People were picking up these VCRs and carrying them away. We saw people riding down the street, carrying two or three of them on a bicycle.”
The incident is the latest in a string of train robberies that have plagued the Southern Pacific line in the Compton and Watts area, investigators said.
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