Freeway guardrails are there to protect us. They're now a favorite target of thieves

On a recent Thursday evening, traffic was slow on the 10 Freeway as cars crawled into the downtown Los Angeles area. It was an average commute back to Pasadena for Bryan Gonzalez until he saw a man on the other side of the freeway cutting through a guardrail with a reciprocating saw.

“OK, there's something weird going on,” Gonzalez said about his observations from Aug. 21, which he captured on video and reported to Caltrans. “I was debating whether or not saying anything, but I said, ‘Hey, I'm in slow traffic. He has a saw. No, thank you.’”

What Gonzalez observed was not a fluke. Guardrail theft is a problem that has been on the rise for the last eight years, according to the local Caltrans office covering L.A. and Ventura counties. Over the last two years, the state transportation agency has spent more than $62,000 on repairs related to guardrail theft in the region.

The man who appeared to be trying to steal the guardrail apparently didn’t succeed. A photo Gonzalez shared with LAist the following week shows an intact guardrail with a mark where the saw was used.

California Highway Patrol, whose jurisdiction includes state-owned highways, said it’s investigating the incident. A spokesperson for the agency said it hasn’t found the man in the video.

Aluminum, which Caltrans’ guardrails are made from, is just one metal used in public infrastructure that is increasingly stolen and sold to metal scrapyards and recyclers.

Missing guardrails

Over the last several months since he’s been commuting to work in Culver City, Gonzalez said he’s noticed guardrailing disappearing on the 10 Freeway near the 110 Freeway interchange.

“I was just equating it to normal wear and tear of accidents and the guardrailing doing what it's supposed to do,” Gonzalez said.

When he saw the man with the saw, Gonzalez said the dots began to connect.

A statement from Caltrans calls guardrail theft an “ongoing” problem in downtown L.A. that causes safety issues for drivers. More specifically, the state transportation agency said there has been “a marked increase in rail theft” along a stretch of the 10 Freeway between Santa Fe Avenue and the 110 interchange.

Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year alone in L.A. and Ventura counties, costing the state transportation agency $17,000 to replace, the agency said.

Guardrail theft spiked in 2023 after an arsonist set fire to a storage yard beneath the 10 Freeway. Caltrans said it spent $45,000 on repairs in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Google Map Street View images from May 2024 near the San Pedro Street and Central Avenue ramps leading to the 10 Freeway in downtown show additional sections of missing guardrails.

To prevent thefts, Caltrans said it tried welding bolts into the guardrails, but thieves were able to breach that deterrent.

The next step the agency is considering is using fiberglass composite instead of aluminum to construct guard rails “to remove the value to the thieves.”

The value of aluminum

Aluminum is critical to transportation infrastructure, said Lance Hastings, the president and CEO of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.

“Like most base metals, the price of aluminum has increased in recent years,” Hastings said. “Tariffs further disrupt the global supply chain, driving up costs and creating market instability.”

President Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier this summer. In August, the Department of Commerce announced that hundreds of other “derivative” steel and aluminum products would also be subject to tariffs.

Metal theft

Metal theft in L.A. is a persistent problem that damages telecom, lighting, train and other critical infrastructure. It also hamstrings government agencies, which, as a result of increasing thefts, say they're unable to keep up with repairs.

The head of the L.A.’s street lighting department told LAist earlier this year that copper wire theft causes 40% of all repairs, up from a quarter just two years ago.

Earlier in August, 60 feet of copper cable was stolen from a portion of the track that services L.A. Metro’s A-line train, resulting in reduced service for about 16 hours, according to a statement from the countywide transportation agency.

Ally Happel, an executive at security company ECAM, said thieves will target any materials that are “accessible and easy to sell at a high price.”

ECAM uses AI surveillance systems to “detect and predict suspicious activity.” It has partnered with Foothill Transit, as well as the L.A. Police Department and port police.

Bronze, brass, iron, lead and steel are also “vulnerable to theft,” Happel said.

It’s not just an L.A. problem. Nearly a third of all copper theft and telecom infrastructure vandalism nationwide happened in California, according to state Attorney General Rob Bonta. 

It’s unclear what the LAPD is doing to address the problem for metal stolen from city infrastructure. The department disbanded its metal theft detail six years ago, according to a report it delivered to City Council last year.

There were at least two LAPD metal theft task forces funded by council offices that were active last year. It’s unclear if they still exist.

LAPD has not responded to LAist’s repeated questions about the continued existence of those task forces and whether there has been more recent metal theft enforcement actions.