A pair of limited-edition running shoes listed for sale on eBay has led Los Angeles detectives to one of the largest rail-cargo recoveries of the season: about $1 million worth of merchandise stolen from BNSF Railroad trains, stacked on 35 pallets inside a Chatsworth shoe shop, and an owner now booked on suspicion of receiving stolen property.

Source: FreightWaves

The Los Angeles Police Department announced the recovery on October 26, 2026. Detectives from the Commercial Crimes Division's Cargo Theft Task Force served a search warrant on October 21 at a business in the 21000 block of Nordhoff Street in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, working alongside BNSF Police, Union Pacific Railroad Police, Alameda Belt Line Police, Los Angeles Port Police, Los Angeles World Airport Police, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations, according to the department's release NR26225kt.

Source: Los Angeles Police Department release NR26225kt

A pair of shoes sold online started the case

The trail began with footwear, not freight paperwork. Detectives discovered stolen Brooks running shoes from a runDisney collaboration advertised for sale on eBay and arranged a controlled purchase of the shoes, KCAL/KCBS Los Angeles reported. That transaction led investigators to the Chatsworth business, DesignerDeals4Less, and to the search warrant that followed.

Source: KCAL/KCBS Los Angeles, via Courtroom Insider

Inside the business, officers found BNSF Railroad train property worth an estimated $1 million: athletic shoes from Brooks, Hoka, New Balance, Adidas, ON and Salomon, and JanSport backpacks — 35 pallets of cargo in total, the LAPD said. The department has not publicly said when or where the merchandise was originally taken from BNSF trains, and BNSF Railway declined to comment on the specific investigation when FreightWaves asked.

$1 millionEstimated value of the recovered BNSF cargo
35Pallets of shoes and backpacks found at the shop
Oct. 21, 2026Date the Nordhoff Street search warrant was served
51Age of owner Heros Tasci, of Simi Valley

Owner booked at Van Nuys Jail

During the search, detectives contacted the business owner, who admitted purchasing the stolen train property from illegitimate distributors of the brands, according to the LAPD. The owner, 51-year-old Heros Tasci of Simi Valley, was booked at Van Nuys Jail for receiving stolen property under California Penal Code section 496(A), with booking number 7343696, the department said. A booking on suspicion is an allegation, not a conviction: Tasci is presumed innocent unless prosecutors file charges and prove them in court.

Second LA shoe-shop recovery in a month

On September 30, the same cargo task force searched Shoes n Shoes in Whittier and recovered 59 pallets of merchandise believed to have been stolen from BNSF and Union Pacific trains, also valued at about $1 million. Owner Waseem Saman, 45, of Placentia, was arrested there on suspicion of receiving stolen property after police said he admitted buying much of his inventory from brokers who were not legitimate distributors, FreightWaves and FreightWire reported.

Why rail cargo theft keeps hitting Southern California

Los Angeles sits at the meeting point of the nation's busiest container ports, two transcontinental railroads and some of its most heavily used freight corridors, and rail-cargo theft has become a standing problem for the region: thieves target stopped or slow-moving trains and containers, and the goods surface quickly through discount shops and online marketplaces. That is why the recovery was run by a dedicated Cargo Theft Task Force with railroad police, port police, airport police, federal investigators and the district attorney's own investigators all on the same warrant.

For the many Punjabi and South Asian families who work in trucking, warehousing and freight across Southern California, cases like this one land close to home. Every recovered load is a reminder that shippers and railroads are tightening checks at pickup and delivery points, and drivers and warehouse staff are increasingly asked to verify paperwork, seals and identities — because a load that disappears can mean lost contracts and police questions for everyone who touched it.

Cargo crime keeps surfacing along Southern California's freight corridors — including a fake warehouse pickup in Torrance that moved a $500,000 load of firearm parts before detectives recovered it and made two arrests. Read: Torrance fictitious-pickup arrests

What happens next: the LAPD says the investigation remains ongoing, and detectives are still tracing how the cargo left BNSF's hands and who supplied it to the shop. Anyone with information about the stolen merchandise can contact the Commercial Crimes Division at 213-486-8766. Whether Tasci faces formal charges is a decision for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.