Thieves have targeted freight trains running through the deserts of California and Arizona in a string of audacious heists resulting in the theft of more than $2 million worth of new Nike sneakers, including many that haven’t hit the retail market yet,

Train heists aren't just a thing of the Old West. A series of brazen train robberies has emerged across the western United States and authorities say the thieves focus on high-value containers.

Last year, stolen pairs of the then-unreleased Air Jordan 11 "Legend Blue" worth more than $200,000 were recovered after allegedly being stolen from a train in California. That headline is just the tip of the iceberg of a heist syndicate targeting Nike sneakers,