Chicago is a major rail hub. Some of the stuff you need may be on a freight train securely locked and parked in a rail yard there. However…

“Several individuals scaled onto the Union Pacific tracks in Chicago and plundered electronics from a parked freight train on Friday.

“The incident unfolded in broad daylight early Friday afternoon when a group accessed the tracks and forcibly entered the boxcars of a freight train that had been securely locked, according to CBS Chicago. The looters walked away with TV and air fryers, carrying away their heist for hours even as police arrived on the scene, CBS Chicago reported.”

Chicago Police, Transit Police, and Railroad Police responded but took hours to restore order. Sadly, Sergeant Voight was not among them.

Robbing trains is nothing new. The robbers used to ride horses and shoot it out with Wells Fargo and Post Office guards. Now they just break the locks and loot freight cars. Simpler, safer, but no less illegal. “Thou shalt not steal” plays no role whatever. I doubt that many of the looters ever heard it.

So if what you ordered from Amazon is late arriving, be patient. It may not be their fault. It is difficult to schedule deliveries when shipments may be looted. It is difficult to manage retailing when stores may be looted. It is difficult to maintain a civilization when everything is subject to being looted. Yet here we are.