A Train Was Robbed Of Hot Wheel Cars

At around 3 a.m. on Thursday, October 22, 2026, a 911 caller in Colton, California, reported something that sounded almost like a prank. Trains were being robbed at the end of Maple Street, the caller said, and the thieves were loading boxes into a pickup truck.

The boxes were full of Hot Wheels.

By sunrise, Colton police had recovered 350 boxes of the tiny die-cast cars, valued at an estimated $54,000, and had a suspect in custody. The department announced the bust on Facebook with a pun that did most of the talking: "We derailed his plans!"

It was, by any measure, one of the strangest cargo thefts in a region that has seen plenty of them. Southern California's freight corridors have been hit for years by organized crews cutting into cargo containers for electronics, designer goods, and anything else that can be resold fast. This time, the cargo was toy cars — each box holding multiple vehicles, headed somewhere that investigators are still trying to trace.

The bust started with that early-morning call. "Yeah, they're robbing the trains down here at the end of Maple Street," the caller said in audio the department later posted to its Facebook page. A Colton officer wearing a body camera positioned himself near South 7th Street and South La Cadena Drive, close enough to hear what was happening at the rail line.

"I can hear them loading up some boxes right now," the officer said while he waited.

Then the truck moved. "Alright, it looks like a black truck is pulling out right now," he said, and he sprinted back to his patrol car. The vehicle was a black Chevrolet Silverado pickup, and the officer caught up with it moments later and pulled it over. Body camera footage shows the driver stepping out with his hands on his head before being taken into custody without incident.

Inside the truck, officers found the haul: 350 boxes of Hot Wheels, stacked and ready to go. The department released a photo of the recovered boxes, a small mountain of toy cars that had been bound for somewhere other than a store shelf.

The suspect, whose name police have not released, was booked into the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of burglary, possession of stolen property, and grand theft. The case remains under investigation as officials try to determine where the toys were headed for resale. Everyone involved is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

For the people who live near the tracks off Maple Street, the bust was welcome news — and a rare one. Some residents told reporters they were scared to speak on camera for fear of retaliation, but said the area is a hotspot for train thefts. Colton police spokeswoman Jillian Nunez described the scene plainly: a black pickup truck at the end of a cul-de-sac, loading several boxes into its bed, while an officer staked out under a nearby bridge.

"To have an arrest of that extremity, it's a big deal," Nunez said.

The timing mattered. Earlier in October, a group of thieves in the Inland Empire led police on a high-speed chase before dumping their car in Crestline and escaping officers. This time, the early 911 call gave officers the minutes they needed to get into position before the truck ever left the scene.

Colton police closed their announcement with a second pun, just in case the first one didn't land: "His wheels weren't hot enough to get away!"

It is a funny line about a serious problem. Cargo theft from freight trains costs shippers, sellers, and ultimately shoppers, and the crews behind it rarely get caught in the act. On this particular morning, though, the thieves picked the wrong cargo, the wrong street, and the wrong officer to be listening in the dark.

Three hundred and fifty boxes of toy cars are back in police custody. The train kept rolling. And somewhere in Colton, a pickup truck full of Hot Wheels never made it to the highway.