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Transportation

Man Uses Illegal Immigrants
for Carpool Privileges

Human smuggling enters the carpool lane as five illegal immigrants are found locked inside a commuter's car.

By George Wolfe

A man was arrested today after police found illegal immigrants chained inside his BMW at a workplace parking lot. The five men, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, said they came from Guatemala and were smuggled into the country and sold to the car's owner, Neil Schnelling, four months ago.

Judging by the amount of debris found in the car (literally, knee deep), the men's story seemed entirely plausible. Schnelling confessed to buying the men in order to ease the commute from his home in Diamond Bar all the way over to Studio City. It was a trip that used to take nearly three hours per day, but with his "carpool buddies" he was able to cut his driving time down to just over an hour a day.

"I guess I did get a little out of control — hell, I was desperate. Who could I turn to except even more desperate people?"

— Neil Schnelling,
commuter / human smuggler

"The commute got so… out of control," says Schnelling, "that I guess I did get a little out of control — hell, I was desperate. Who could I turn to except even more desperate people? But it's not like I treated them poorly. I left them a cooler for lunch every day. Sometimes, on coffee breaks, I'd come out and check on them. Sure, maybe every once in a while I'd forgot to crack a window. But who doesn't sometimes forgot to do that with their own pets or children?!"

Schnelling explained that in order to avoid attention, he'd pull into his garage after dark, then lock the garage door and let "the guys" out, where they'd proceed to sleep on an old mattress. In the morning, he'd chain the guys again inside the car and head off to work.

Asked why he didn't just use one immigrant to gain access to the carpool lane, Schnelling explained that "with more guys I felt like it wouldn't look as suspicious — like we were just a crew going to work on someone's yard. Maybe I was wrong."

Human smuggling remains a growing problem in Los Angeles ever since crackdowns in neighboring Arizona have caused smugglers to open up new markets elsewhere.

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT: Illegal immigrants used as human commuter shields are clogging up the HOV lanes quicker than police can curb the problem.