Every year cargo theft numbers spike around the holidays and so every year companies look for more ways to protect their cargo. This year however, the insurance companies are getting involved too by placing ‘honeypot’ trailers full of tempting cargo in high-risk locations hoping that cargo thieves will scoop them up and get caught red-handed.
Few people lose as much money as the insurance company when a load is stolen, so it makes sense that they want to crack down on cargo theft rings as much as carriers do. The insurance company, Travelers Cos., is taking a cue from law enforcement agencies and setting up its own sting trailer.
The way it works is that law enforcement (or Travelers) will load up a trailer with expensive goods like electronics, drop it at a warehouse or truck stop and then just wait. When the trailer or goods are stolen, tracking devices embedded with the goods can lead investigators straight to the culprits.
Earlier this year a Travelers trailer in New Mexico loaded up with Bose speakers was hit by a cargo thieves. They tracked the thieves to a warehouse in Michigan where they arrested a whole group of people who had been part of a cargo theft ring based out of the Southwest.
There are a few things that investigators will do to make the cargo more enticing. First, they load it into an unmarked trailer since studies show that plain white trailers are more likely to be taken than those with logos or writing on them. Next, they make sure that the cargo is something that can sit for a long time without spoiling or getting damaged and that it’s something that’s appealing to the thieves (electronics work great). Finally, through this process investigators have learned that thieves will often target trailers that have small doors embedded in their main trailer doors so that they can discreetly take a peek inside to decide if they want what’s in there.
According to Travelers, the primary purpose of these stings is to break up large cargo theft rings. “Every time the sting trailer breaks up a ring … every trucking company or anyone in the supply chain that moves cargo in that area benefits,” said Scott Cornell, a theft investigator for Travelers. “It has clearly reduced thefts in areas where there have been arrests.”
Source: timesunion, gobytrucknews, thetrucker, insurancejournal
Finally at a company using their head. It can usually be traced back to somebody at the shippers .
Yes…except now that the cat is out of the bag about it theives will find a way to circumvent the attempt.
I agree with the idea and it sounds great thieves cost all us millions every year, but don’t you think you should have waited until after the holiday stealing rush was over before publishing this article. It’s kinda like the news telling our enemies we are going to bomb them before we do it. No warnings just handcuffs and bars.
That’s what I was thinking too Cherokee, thieves read too
The thieves running the ring aren’t stupid. They’re going to send disposable runners out to take the trailers and unload them just like cartels use mules to haul drugs over the border. They don’t care if a runner gets 20 years in prison, they have a dozen waiting to take over the spot that think they can do better and the runner doesn’t know enough to get a conviction of anyone above them.
The article doesn’t matter. They have known bait trailers are out there. Just like when you watch a bait car show and every single thief is like “Aw man, its a bait car dawg” when the police shut it down.
every one knows about drop yards. ?They are called drop yards because the companies don’t want their trucks going into the bigger cities so they hire a local company to deliver and pick up loads . Do these companies really ever get checked to make sure they are legit ?
uuuh, Lance, please re-read the article. They followed that one trailer from New Mexico to Michigan and sucked in a “whole group of people”. Not just the individual(s) who grabbed the trailer. And the larger the group of people swimming in the outhouse, the more likely members are to roll over on the upstream folk.
As for letting it be known that there are “bait trailers” out there, so what? Some bad guy is going to look in a trailer and say “Oh, my goodness, this is too good to be true, it must be bait! I”ll just leave it alone!” ?? Face it, the whole concept is one of “acceptable risk”, and knowing that there are bait trailers out there is not going to stop anybody from lifting any of the other 99.9999% of trailers out there.
me, I like the concept of the dye pack… backed by 100 sticks of TNT