Train bastards: how thieves rob passengers on the railway
Russian trains regularly record cases of theft. They steal both in the "people's" reserved seats and in elite sleeping cars. According to the transport police, more than 4,500 crimes were registered in railway, air and water transport in the first two months of 2026. Among the victims there are members of the SVO. How passengers lose equipment and money while traveling — in the Izvestia article.
The tactics of thieves
Theft of mobile devices and electronics has become the most common type of crime on the railway. Things disappear from the compartments and from the vestibules, where passengers leave their gadgets on charge.
In April, transport police officers uncovered the theft of headphones for 12 thousand rubles on the St. Petersburg-Kazan train. The theft was committed by a 30-year-old traveling companion who got off at several stations before Kazan. She took advantage of the fact that the victim left the headset unattended in the dining car.
According to Izvestia's source in the transport police, the intruders are specifically on duty in the vestibules, waiting for the moment when the passenger is distracted by a phone conversation or gets on the platform.
— Most often, electronics are stolen in vestibules and common corridors, — said the policeman. — Passengers leave their phones on charge for just a few minutes, and when they return, the gadget is gone. It's amazing that every toilet and almost every outlet has a warning sign. But passengers often ignore them.
In some cases, thieves act under the guise of conductors or repairmen.
"There have been fewer such cases in recent years, as carriers carefully monitor the actions of the conductors, as well as visually monitor passengers," the officer added.
Train theft is one of the simplest crimes in terms of execution, sometimes committed situationally. That is, an ordinary person sees that it is possible to take someone else's property unnoticed, and takes it. This was done by a 35-year-old passenger of the Moscow-Belgorod train, who robbed a fellow passenger in the carriage.
"According to the suspect, while in the train carriage, she saw the wallet and decided to check its contents. After making sure that there was no one around, she opened her wallet and took the money, the attacker put them in her pants pocket, put the wallet under a twisted mattress and got off at Prokhorovka station," the press service of the Belgorod Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia said in a statement.
Stealing from the neighbors in the compartment is quite common among passengers. Victims often communicate with a fellow traveler, and in the morning they discover that he left the train with their belongings or money. As a rule, such thieves get off at the nearest major station, and it is not always possible to find them.
"Quite often, members of the SVR returning from the war zone are robbed on trains," says a police source. — Thefts are often committed in dining cars.
If you found it, don't take it.
Severe responsibility awaits not only thieves, but also citizens who have found someone else's property and appropriated it. So, a resident of Kungur, who picked up someone else's wallet in the toilet at the train station, according to the investigation, decided to appropriate its contents for herself. The defendant herself claims that there was no money in the purse, which she threw into the trash. The transport police found her at the request of a 64-year-old passenger who lost her ill-fated wallet. So earlier, a law-abiding Russian woman was under investigation.
— If a person finds someone else's thing and does not take active actions to return it to its rightful owner, he may get into trouble with the law, — lawyer Ekaterina Krasnova told Izvestia. — The law enforcement officer often interprets the provisions of art. 227 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation very loosely, defining such finds as secret theft of other people's property. Meanwhile, judicial practice has already developed when people who have not actually committed theft in the generally accepted sense end up with a criminal record under Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
"Technology has become the main detective": the view of a veteran detective
Retired police colonel, author of the book "Notes of an Old Detective" Valentin Stanovov, who has worked in railway transport for more than 30 years, believes that today's crime on the railway has lost its former audacity, but has acquired a new technology.
— Earlier, especially in the 90s, crime on the railway was rampant and daring, — says Stanovov. — There were, for example, thefts of entire wagons, when intruders unhooked them right on the move, and freight trains were opened at night like tin cans. The guest performers felt at ease on passenger trains. We operatives went on business trips, boarded trains disguised as ordinary passengers, trying to figure out these gangs. But it was difficult to work: no cameras, no databases, only operational intuition and connections with the agency. At the same time, we could easily have been "handed over" by the guides, who had their own agreements with the thieves.
According to Stanovov, today the emphasis is on technology, and what used to take weeks is now solved in hours.
— Today, digital control has changed the rules of the game. Transport police officers note that the number of thefts at train stations and on trains has decreased significantly. Although some spikes are being recorded, especially today, when domestic tourism has grown.
The veteran detective also notes that the "range" of thieves' interests has narrowed over time.
— If earlier a thief could be tempted by anything, today the peak of his desires are compact and expensive things. Most often, smartphones, laptops, and other electronics become victims. A real treasure for them is a bag of money or an expensive watch. The thieves' scheme of action has improved over the past decades, but the base has remained the same. Nowadays, a thief usually buys a ticket to some station and looks like an ordinary passenger. He is friendly, dressed discreetly — so that later the witness could not describe him. At the right moment, seizing the moment, he goes hunting.
According to Stanovov, the lock on the door to the compartment does not pose a particular problem for the thief.
— The secret is simple: thieves use a simple metal ruler or a carriage key for this. The locks there are primitive, and it takes a few seconds to overcome their defenses. Usually, one thief opens the door, the other rummages through the pockets of hanging clothes and takes what was left on the table. If the passenger wakes up, the thief poses as a drunken neighbor who confused the compartment.
By the way, some carriages now use a magnetic key to lock the compartment, and each passenger receives a card to get inside.
Statistics and dynamics
Data from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for January–February 2026 shows an overall decrease in the number of registered "transport" crimes. In total, 4,554 crimes were registered in Russian transport in the two months of 2026, which is 21.3% less than a year earlier. The disclosure rate is quite high — 81.7%. It is worth noting that the statistics show general figures on crimes in rail, water and air transport.
At the same time, the Izvestia source speaks about the high latency of "railway" crimes.
— The actual number of thefts may be higher, especially in areas where there is no video surveillance. Victims often do not contact the police if the item was inexpensive and the trip was short. Also, many people are afraid to waste time on proceedings.
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