A routine-looking pair of sneakers listed on eBay turned into the thread that unraveled a million-dollar stash of stolen railroad cargo hidden inside a Chatsworth business. Los Angeles police say they recovered approximately 35 pallets of merchandise stolen from Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad trains, with an estimated value of $1 million, after searching a store called DesignerDeals4Less.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the recovered merchandise included shoes from Brooks, Hoka, New Balance, Adidas, On and Salomon, along with JanSport backpacks. The haul traces back to a controlled purchase LAPD detectives made of stolen shoes from a Brooks and Disney collaboration that someone was selling on eBay, a sale that pointed investigators straight toward the Chatsworth storefront, as MyNewsLA.com reported.
Search Warrant Served at Nordoff Street Business
Detectives served the search warrant Wednesday at DesignerDeals4Less, located near the intersection of Nordoff Street and Independence Avenue in Chatsworth, per the NBC Los Angeles report. Investigators identified the business owner as 51-year-old Heros Tasci of Simi Valley, who was arrested and booked at Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of receiving stolen property.
The station's report adds that Tasci allegedly admitted to purchasing the stolen merchandise from unauthorized distributors of the brands found inside his shop. Under California Penal Code Section 496, a principal in the actual theft of property can be convicted of receiving stolen property, though state law bars a conviction on that charge and for theft of the same property at once, according to California Legislative Information.
A Multi-Agency Task Force Effort
The operation involved several law enforcement agencies working alongside LAPD, including BNSF Police, Union Pacific Railroad Police, Alameda Belt Line Police, Los Angeles Port Police, Los Angeles World Airports Police, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations, the same report notes. Investigators say the probe remains ongoing, with no additional arrests announced as of this week.
This is not the first time this fall that LAPD's cargo-theft efforts have turned up a major stash. A separate operation uncovered stolen goods packed inside 59 pallets at a business called Shoes n Shoes on Slauson Avenue on September 30, according to a separate NBC Los Angeles report.
Part of a Broader Wave Hitting Southern California Rail Lines
The Chatsworth bust lands amid a documented surge in cargo theft targeting Southern California's rail corridors. Strategic cargo theft in the region has climbed over the past five years as criminal groups lean on digital tools, false identities and fraudulent carrier information to target supply-chain targets, the San Bernardino Sun reported. The same report cites Homeland Security Investigations estimating that cargo theft now costs the U.S. economy roughly $35 billion annually, with the American Trucking Association putting the rise in strategic cargo theft since 2021 at more than 1,500%.
Nationally, the numbers tell a similar story. Estimated cargo-theft losses surged 60% to nearly $725 million in 2025, according to Verisk CargoNet, which also tracked confirmed incidents rising 18% year over year and the average value per theft jumping 36% to nearly $274,000. California remained the most impacted state in the country, logging 1,218 supply-chain crime incidents in 2025, per the same CargoNet data.
Other Recent Train Heists Across the Region
The Chatsworth case follows a string of brazen BNSF-targeted thefts across the Inland Empire. In Colton this week, police recovered $54,000 worth of stolen Hot Wheels merchandise, totaling 350 boxes pulled from a pickup truck and the surrounding area, following a reported burglary of BNSF freight containers, the Daily Bulletin reported.
In September, robbers set fire to a BNSF train as it traveled through Riverside and burglarized freight cars after forcing the engineer to stop, according to the East Bay Times. Weeks earlier, thieves using 15 to 20 vehicles stole $50,000 worth of Ariat boots and DeWalt construction equipment from a BNSF train in rural Amboy, the same outlet reported. A separate recovery effort by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and partner agencies pulled in roughly $2.1 million in cargo stolen from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway after train burglaries in the Victor Valley area, according to the Sun's reporting.
