During Q1 2015, a staggering $23 million worth of cargo was reported to be stolen, with the highest amount of theft losses being recorded in California (30). Texas (27) stood second, then Georgia (24), New Jersey (24), and then Florida (20) completing the list of the top 5 states suffering from the highest amount of cargo theft.
Many states, including Texas, have legislations related to cargo theft lingering on for some time. If and when they get passed and signed, they will turn into law.
When it comes to location of theft, distribution centers and warehouses are easily on the top of the list. This is where over 23 percent of cargo thefts take place. The other locations include truck stops with 16 percent, unsecured lots with 10 percent, and parking lots with 10 percent.
When categorized according to the kind of cargo, food and beverages ranked on the top of the thefts list with 33 percent. However, it was not the costliest of categories, which was topped by electronics. Electronics accounted for over $8.19 million worth of cargo theft losses in Q1 2015, which was 13 percent of the overall losses.
The second on the value list was fictitious pickups that accounted for 12 percent of overall losses from cargo thefts during the quarter. It is intriguing that 79 percent of these losses from fictitious pickup happened within the eastern half of the country. Looking at it another way, almost half of these losses from fictitious pickups took place on one day of the week – Thursday. Fridays account for 30 percent of them.
With the dawn of new technology, cargo theft criminals have become more sophisticated in their crimes. These criminals have resorted to the use of counterfeit documentation and online shipping companies for winning low-bid contracts for picking cargoes from their victims. They work by conducing identity theft at shipping-company levels and then pick up the victims’ costly cargo. They conduct high-value thefts by trans-loading such merchandise into entirely different containers.
These criminals usually make use of fake identifications, imitated MC numbers, fake trailer identification numbers, even stolen trailers and license plates, and various methods for concealing the identity of which tools they used for committing the crime. In fact, the methodologies have become so advanced and complicated that they are often impossible to detect.
Cargo thefts have been adversely affecting all companies. They need to pay increasing amounts of insurance premiums for running their business. In fact, even one such incident of theft could mean costs in several millions of dollars to a company. That is without including the massive losses that follow because of list customer loyalty and loss of faith in your business practices and processes around security.
But if you contract our services, you will be demonstrating your responsibility and commitment towards increasing your security. This can help your insurance companies see how committed you are in preventing future losses.
POST-THEFT PROCEDURES
You will have our cargo theft investigators nailing the suspects!
You will have your container recovered and the suspects behind bars!
We have:
- Federal and local law-enforcement Personal
- Specialists with vast experience in resolving commercial burglary and cargo theft, and specialists in organized interstate conveyance crimes.
- Expert-level specialization in evidence collection for supporting suspect arrests and for supporting with prosecutions.
- In-depth networking with all levels of law enforcement bodies including at state, federal and local.
- Aggressive efforts for locating and recovering the stolen cargo.
- Vast experience in working for insurance firms across the country.
- We help in removing all factors that could have an impact on the compensation from insurance claims.
- Expertise in subrogation, compliance problems and contract omissions.
