Concord, New Hampshire
AP
—
Forty thousand oysters, $400,000 worth of lobsters and a supply of crabmeat were stolen on separate occasions within weeks in New England.
The first clams went missing Nov. 22 in Falmouth, Maine, where authorities suspect someone stole 14 cages full of oysters from a Casco Bay aquaculture site. Many of the oysters were fully grown and ready for sale, and together with the cages, they were valued at $20,000, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.
“This is a devastating situation for a small business owner,” said Marine Sergeant Matthew Sinclair.
The other two robberies happened in Taunton, Massachusetts, about 100 miles away. First, the crab shipment disappeared after leaving the Lineage Logistics warehouse on December 2. Then, on Dec. 12, a fraudulent trucking company stole lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota, according to the agent who arranged the pickup.
“The trucking company we hired was pretending to be a real company,” Dylan Rexing, CEO of Rexing Companies, said Tuesday. “They had a fake email address. They changed the name on the side of the truck.
They made a fake certified driver’s license. “This is a very complex crime.”
Lineage Logistics, Costco and Taunton police did not respond to requests for comment, but Rexing said police notified him of a crab theft from the same warehouse.
Cargo theft has been a problem for more than a decade, he said, but has worsened in recent years.
“It happens every day, several times a day,” he said.
Cargo theft generally falls into two categories, said Chris Barrows, president and CEO of the Trucking Brokers Association, the trade organization for the trucking brokerage industry. Lobster theft is the first type, which involves someone posing as a legitimate shipping company. The second type, known as strategic theft, often involves the use of phishing emails to gain access to computer systems and obtain payments without actually stealing the product.
“This is a huge and growing problem that needs to be addressed,” he said.
Given the short shelf life, the stolen lobster likely ended up in restaurants, they said. And while he’s seen plenty of jokes about lobster oil being stolen, Rexing said those thefts end up hurting consumers.
“Whether you eat seafood or not, they steal other items. They steal parts to make your cars. They steal components used in computers,” he said. “Ultimately, that cost falls on the consumer.”
(Tagstranslate)Robo
