"According to detectives, Llamas divulged how he learned to decode the containers stacked on freight trains through his repeated break-ins and by Googling the placards, locking devices, logos and numbers on the containers, which often provided clues to the loot he might find inside. An upgraded lock was a sure sign of more valuable contents. Inside the containers — most of them were secured with metal locks about the size and shape of a corkscrew that easily succumbed to his bolt cutters or mechanized handsaw — the items were varied and plentiful: TVs, beer, clothing, makeup, shoes, electric bicycles, hard drives, tablets.
Llamas worked with Connie Arizmendi, his girlfriend at the time. After becoming aware of them, the detectives put a tracking device on the couple’s S.U.V. and followed them around Southern California. The couple would set up in a motel near the tracks somewhere out in the Inland Empire or farther south; they ranged as far as Barstow, more than 100 miles to the east. After nightfall, they would hit the trains and then often shuttle cargo back to their motel rooms for storage."
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