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Subscribe to RSSRIO DE JANEIRO -- Police in Brazil's southeastern Sao Paulo state are investigating the theft of 50 metric tons (55 U.S. tons) of corn from a moving train.
A police report says the thieves greased the train tracks, making the wheels of the 54-wagon locomotive skid and slow down before they used a tow truck with a hook to remove the corn-filled containers.
The report says the theft occurred as the train traveled through a rural area about 180 miles (300 kilometers) north of the capital. The train was headed to the southeastern port of Santos with 60 metric tons (66 U.S. tons) of corn and sugar.
The case is reminiscent of Wild West robberies, where bandits on horses stole from moving trains.
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Leave a Comment:
I could see stealing gold or some other valuable ore, but corn?
Whereya gonna pawn that corn?
.
They are going to feed their people or make a WHOLE LOT OF WHITE LIGHTNING !!!!
Making biofuel, making 'shine, making a tortilla the size of Utah, the list of uses for corn is endless.
Man, some crows you got down there in Brazil!!! What a heist by a bunch of birds!!!! Must be organized birdie crime...lol...I can visualize crows with automatic weapons haulin corn into the woods....
"making a tortilla the size of Utah"
LMAOOOO!!!!!!!
Welcome to the all new "Corn Rush"....
Yeah, that's what I thought.... a truckload of steaks, of beer, or even corn.... but 50 tons??? If not some other state nearby, how DO you pawn that amount???
It's like stealing 10 elephants.... 'hey! I've got 'em! (some time passes) Well, no what the hell we gonna DO with 'em?'.
they will find the bandits after they take a CRAP ,and its all filled with corn kernnels 3~ ~`,CD'
I'm thinking there may have been something a bit more illicit and valuable hidden in the corn ... either that or teenagers are really bored in Brazil.
50 tons of crap is still worth a bundle..
suspect caught on tape...doing away with corn...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3cnwxygiE&feature=related
Stop The Hypocrisy -
Bahahahaha!!! Thanks for the laugh today :D
they must have watched fast five one too many times.
corn is very versatile. Just the corn & sugar can make moon shine & the alcohol level can be 97-98% and a certain animal fat or other house hold chemical and you can make explosives that are really cheap even a "liquid fire" that is very hard to put out.
Depending on the purpose of the individuals a lot can be done that is very bad, all while not setting off any sensors or detection devices.
you dont. you sell it locally to poor people. this could be the first train robbery for humanitarian reasons. the un should give them a medal or the nobel huminatarian medal. have not seen this since the james boys or robinhood. lol hiding it would be easy they are in a rocky terrain and unloading it would make it even easier.
DUH!!!!! Corn IS gold!!!! C'mon man!
Crank up the popcorn poppers. Big time shocker game in the horizon. Hope they include lotsa butter. Yum, yum. No prob as long as it's not genetically modified corn being sold in the US.
Moon shiners perhaps!?
Financial tip of the week; Buy stock in “Jose’s Taco Shops of Brazil”.
"If you steal it they won't come" You clearcut our jungle habitat and take away our food supplies; we'll take yours.
get my corn from a jar,up on Rocky Top
Three questions:
1) Who thought this up?
2) How do you hide 50 metric tons of stolen corn containers until you can fence them?
3)Why did they leave the 10 metric tons of sugar?
1. Orville Redenbocher
2. You dress them as Army Kernals
3. They're diabetics.
Corn + sugar They could of made a bunch of whiskey.
Really, the sugar is a necessary ingrediant in Corn Liquor. Add a little barley, soured cornmeal, wheat and you have 'blended' whiskey. Which by the way, as proved in WWll works for fuel! It is a replacement for gasoline. Just saying.
That'sF'inCrazy,
Yes you are...great responses :)
The train was moving too fast. Not enough time to get the sugar. Their loss.
sounds like a practice exercise to me. the corn may not have a use, but the techniques used to jack it from a train could be very helpful for whatever real crime is yet to come. let's start a conspiracy! what do they really want to do? steal military equipment; munitions, etc? maybe bullion or el presidentes' limo? bio-chem-toxic warfare materials? yeah, makes it sound much more conspiratorial to me; what fun!!!
Buy corn futures! If you don't think corn is valuable look at the cost of food over the past five years. High fructose corn syrup is in almost everything and with corn being used to produce ethanol (especially in Brazil) the value of corn just keeps going up. It's edible gold I tells ya!!!
Actually, it's yellow.
Also stolen, 10 tons of butter and 5 tons of salt. Must be movie night :^)
Of course you'd need an air popper the size of Three Mile Island to pop all that corn. Details details ...
..... at Rose O'Donnell's!
and a toilet bowl the size of niagra falls or the hoover dam !and reems of paper the size of trucks for charmin TP
Why do people think they're going to fence the corn?
Isn't it a bit more logical to assume that, unless we're told otherwise, they'll use it to maybe feed people? Pretty much every country int he world has hungry people, some more than others, and I'm quite sure Brazil is no exception.
If I was going to put the kind of effort into heisting 50 tons of anything from a moving train I'd need a really, really good reason to do it. Hunger is one thing that would be a sufficient reason
The thieves probably had prior arrangements to transport, store, or otherwise distribute the corn. The corn could feed people or livestock. It could be processed into corn oil or even corn sugar.
The corn was probably in an intermodal container. If they were near suitable roads and put the containers on an intermodal trailer chassis it could be a long ways away by now.
sounds a little corny to me
Husk, husk.
They're busy hiding their ill gotten booty. Dug a big ole corn hole to bury it in...
I bet the train engineer got an earful, ahh shucks.
I haven't heard anything on the streets but I'll keep an ear out. Its the return of Orville Redenbockers ghost.
The price of corn is way too high since they started making ethanol out of it.
This story is proof!
Soon to be 80 proof.
Actually ethanol is made from sugar cane in Brazil. However, due to the states using it for ethanol production has put considerable upward pressure on corn prices.
Additionally, without subsides and tariffs currently in place, corn would not be an economically viable source of ethanol in the U.S.
You've got to give them credit; it was a unique solution. A little "corny," but a solution to their shenanigans.
Marty308 whatever,
Where are you from? In Illinois corn is turned into ethenol! We don't grow sugar cane or sugar beets, we grow corn!!!!!!!!!!!! The ethenol produced in Illinois is killing exports and driving gas prices higher! If you don't believe me, just search ethenol.
Supply and Demand...that's why farmers are growing more corn and less wheat. That has led to higher prices for wheat (bread cereal etc.) all over the world. Food riots in Africa and Haiti and higher prices here...lines at food banks etc. We are cutting our noses to spite our faces.
hahhhahaahahaha now thats funny
They probably used corn oil on the tracks. I'm sure they'll get popped.
they be out in a jiffy-pop...
Follow theee kernels, sir Coronel.
Papa, what's for dinner?
"Corn"
"AGAIN?"
Let me get this right...
They greased the track, slowed the train down enough to remove 50 tons of corn and the enigineer didn't notice what was going on? Sounds like an inside job to me.
Google the Conrail Boyz. Even if the engineer saw what was going on and knew it was a heist, what do you think he could do about it???
If they picked their location carefully, and the corn was in an intermodal container, and they had the right equipment (an intermodal forklift and grabber) they could be "Gone in 60 Seconds".
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?86216-IM-1-Intermodal-Container-Forklift-amp-Grabber
Also, the container itself would be worth something as a storage container or a home.
Good for combustible fuel but not fit for human consumption. Same goes for the sugar....
Why not fit for human consumption? Where do you think corn meal comes from? Corn flakes? They come from dried field corn that is shipped to the production plants by semi trucks and trains.
actually dried field corn is fit for human consumption .. all one has to do is boil it until its soft like a boiled potato then mash it on a flat surface, let it dry out either by sun baking it or some other means like on hot rocks from a firepit or even an oven made out of mud/clay then grind it into a flour. from there you can make different food items with it, corn meal and tortillas being 2
must've called in BANACEK to solve this case.
they should have jacked the sugar too,with that corn they could make trainloads of moonshine !
The banits heard it was going to Norway. Oh yeah, they need butter! But this does sound too fishy to have any truth. The engineer didn't notice all those grain trucks on the side of the road? Duuuuhhhhh!
I can't help but wonder what was really in that train car. I haven't heard of famine in Brazil so I really doubt it was the corn.
a cornucopia of corns. yummy. sweet sweet corn. someone's having corn for dinner!
corn on the cob.
butter corn.
flame-broiled corn.
flame-grilled corn.
mesquite corn.
All enough reason to grease some tracks for tons of corns.
HMMMM Corn and sugar, if you dolts can think even for a second add corn and sugar to water add heat and what do you get, ........................ alcohol now how much is that worth
You guy's comments are pretty corny....
What on earth is a "54-wagon locomotive"?
sounds like the scene from the Lee Marvin movie "Emperor of the North", where they greased the rails to jump on the train.
Coming to a neighborhood near you if we don't secure our borders and deport all the illegal criminal aliens.
Joyce, someone should grease your one track mind. The Engine that motivates you needs to backslide a bit so you can see the error of your (train) tunnel vision.
this is just corny