Seligman, Arizona (AZ Family) — Three people are in custody after authorities say they stole from a train in northern Arizona and were pursued by multiple agencies last week.
According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, employees of the BNSF train near Seligman, 110 miles west of Flagstaff, called 911 just before midnight Friday to report they had been robbed by people in a white box truck. I reported it.
Deputies arrived while the robbery was still in progress.
YCSO said the driver of the truck and another driver of another vehicle headed westbound on Interstate 40, with the deputy following them.
Deputies were expecting assistance from YCSO, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
YSCO said sheriff’s deputies chased the suspects for several miles before DPS and Kingman police attempted to stop the box truck driver in Kingman, about 107 miles west of Seligman, but the driver refused to stop. There wasn’t.
DPS then used spike strips twice to stop the truck driver. The driver reportedly crossed the median and into oncoming traffic.
Later, police officers used pit maneuverstopped the truck.
The driver then fled, but was arrested a short time later, YCSO said.
DPS said they followed another vehicle involved in the robbery for “several miles” and the five people escaped and fled into the desert.
Two of them were arrested. DPS announced that three of the six suspects remain at large.
His name has not been released.
It is unclear what the suspects stole from the train.
Investigation is ongoing.
YCSO said it has seen a “spike” in the number of train robberies in the county over the past year, and estimates that millions of dollars worth of goods have been stolen as a result.
“This kind of thing seems to be trending right now. It’s becoming more and more frequent, and I think it’s definitely a big problem,” said Scott Jones, director of the Arizona Legislature’s SMART transportation division. Ta.
In the second quarter of this year, cargonet.com According to the report, 771 thefts on trains have been reported nationwide, an increase of 33% compared to the same period in 2023.
Jones believes part of the reason for the spike in train thefts is a reduction in the number of railroad police officers and an increase in train length.
“I think it’s going to get much worse until we hire more police officers to control yard access and shorten trains so they’re not parked in the middle of the desert,” Jones said.
A spokesperson for BNSF, which owns the train that was robbed over the weekend, said it now has more crew on board than it did at this time last year.
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