Report: Thanksgiving weekend a boon recently for cargo thieves

Organizations involved in the shipping of consumer goods need to have their guard up this week as recent history has shown a substantial increase in cargo theft activity centered around the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

According to a recent bulletin from FreightWatch International, over the past three Thanksgiving weekends, there have been an average of 10.5 thefts per day, which is more than three times the annual average of 2.6 thefts per day during those years. Among the items most highly coveted by cargo thieves during this time period include electronics and clothing/shoes, which brings them on par with food/drink shipments.

Some cargo theft incidents that stood out during the week of Thanksgiving last year included:

• Full truck load of 3D televisions and Blu-ray players stolen in California.
• Over $550,000 worth of infant formula was stolen from an unsecured lot in Texas.
• $540,000 in copper stolen in Illinois.
• Full truck load theft of clothing in New Jersey.
• Full truck load theft of computer memory chips from Illinois.

FreightWatch says that organizations need to make sure their security protocols are up to date and in line with industry best practices for in-transit and warehouse operations, both of which are expected to be heavily targeted over the holiday. In addition, FreightWatch said that covert GPS tracking devices with an active monitoring program can be used to help mitigate the threat, as well as aid in the recovery of  any stolen shipments.