Barstow man, homeless locals arrested for alleged BNSF train-car burglary

A Barstow man and two local homeless men are in jail on suspicions of burglary and a mix of separate charges after being arrested as they allegedly tried to flee a BNSF Railway Co. train car they'd just looted for various goods.

The incident began with officers dispatched to "an in-progress burglary" shortly after 10:40 a.m. last Thursday and ended a bit more than an hour later with three suspects arrested: Barstow resident Joseph Ortega, 43; Barstow transient James Sansoucie, 43; and Barstow transient John Alley, 47, according to a Facebook post by Barstow PD and county booking records.

The train car that the men are suspected of burglarizing sat on railroad tracks close to the 1300 block of Riverside Drive, near the western end of BNSF's massive Barstow intermodal yard and a few hundred feet north of Main Street.

Barstow PD officers dispatched to the scene in response to a reporting party describing "three white male adult suspects that were last seen fleeing on foot southbound over a brick wall separating the railroad tracks from nearby businesses," the department stated in its Facebook post.

At the brick wall in question, Barstow Sgt. Matthew Helms found a duffle bag filled with property "that was later confirmed to be stolen from one of the train cars," per the post, prompting several additional officers to join the search for suspects in the area.

Helms then spotted Ortega "fleeing southbound back across the railroad track," leading to his arrest in the same area where the alleged train-car burglary occurred. Officers then found the two suspects, identified as homeless, Sansoucie and Alley, a short walk south in the 1600 block of Riverside Drive.

"Officers located additional stolen property in the area where Alley and Sansoucie were located," Barstow PD stated in its post.

All three men remained in custody as of Monday morning at the San Bernardino County Sheriff's High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, according to county booking records. They hadn't been officially charged with burglary but were held on a $30,000 per-person bail for the suspected charge. Each was set to appear in Victorville Superior Court at 12:30 p.m. Monday for a hearing that could lead to the filing of that charge.

Sansoucie was also being held on existing charges of possession of a leaded cane, or a baton, and driving with a suspended license, raising his total bail as of Monday morning to $110,000. He was set to appear in Victorville Superior Court at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday for those separate charges.

Ortega was also being held on existing charges of what appears to be a separate burglary and domestic battery, raising his total bail to $50,000 with a court appearance for those charges also set for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Alley didn't face any existing charges as of Monday morning but was being held on suspicion of prohibited possession of ammunition as a felon in addition to the alleged BNSF train-car burglary last Thursday.

Charlie McGee covers California’s High Desert for the Daily Press, focusing on the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities. He is also a Report for America corps member with The GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and around the world. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Barstow man, homeless locals booked for BNSF train-car burglary