Three men have been charged with stealing 1,278 pairs of Air Jordan 11 Retro shoes valued at more than $311,000 from a train halted in the Mojave Desert of California.
According to an Orange County district attorney’s release, police, and railway operator BNSF were notified that the contents of a shipping container carrying Nike merchandise had been separated from the train while it was parked outside the desert town of Amboy, California, nearly 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Nike had embedded a GPS tracker in the Air Jordan package, which investigators from the California Highway Patrol tracked down to a U-Haul truck in an Anaheim parking lot.
Bryan QuinteroEcharravia, 18, of Mesa, Arizona; Bernardo Romeroquintero, 34, of Phoenix; and Olegario Flores, 26, have each been charged with one felony count of grand theft and receiving stolen items, as well as misdemeanor possession of burglary tools.
If convicted on all counts, they may face a maximum term of three years in state prison.
It was not immediately known if the men had counsel.
A BNSF spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment.
“Organized theft rings are no match for law enforcement’s sophistication and determination to track down these thieves, arrest them, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer stated in a news release. “In Orange County, it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when you will be caught and you will be prosecuted.”
