- With lingering inflation and other economic pressures, swindlers are continuing to swipe items from shipping containers and to steal entire containers to pad their income and counter lingering scarcity.
- Vehicles and their accessories, building materials, and commercial and industrial items were also frequent theft targets in 2022.
- Cargo transported by air is well protected by airport security personnel and policies.
Stolen Cargo – Two types of Activity
- Pilferage: Two factors that have created greater opportunities for “rail heists” and other pilferage in recent years are the rise in online shopping and related transport of goods and the backlogs of cargo that plagued rail yards and shipping ports during the COVID pandemic.
- Organized crime: These are more sophisticated, planned crimes that require cooperation from someone with insider information along the transit route. Perpetrators go to great lengths to identify valuable cargo and create fake trucking lines in order to run off with merchandise.
Labor shortages have left seaports, rail yards and other transit depots with inadequate staffing, which means containers are sitting idle and unmonitored for longer than they should. Another factor is the number of handoffs involved in getting cargo from point A to point B; various subcontractors handle containers throughout the course of their journey, and each transfer weakens the security.
Statistical report
According to CargoNet, a centralized U.S. database and information-sharing system managed by crime analysts and industry experts, a total of 1,778 supply chain events were recorded in the U.S. and Canada last year — marking a 15% increase over 2021. An estimated $223 million in cargo was stolen across both countries in 2022. About half of that occurred in the three most targeted states: California, Texas and Florida; theft in California increased year-over-year by 41%. The average value of cargo theft events in 2022 was over $200,000.
Frequent targets for theft
The most common locations for theft were warehouses/distribution centers, parking lots and truck stops. Thieves most often took household goods that include appliances, furniture, tools, toys and other items. Electronics and food/beverage items were the second- and third-most popular categories for heists. Of note, computer theft went down 37% over 2021, but the theft of TVs and other displays nearly doubled.
Investigating cargo heists
Regardless of whether goods are stolen from a ship, train, truck or warehouse, cargo losses occurring in transit are generally covered under marine insurance policies. Carriers for whom Sedgwick handles marine investigations turn to us to help them establish liability at the time of theft events, as well as to recover stolen goods.
Investigators visit the last known location of the goods and work to collect evidence that will identify the thieves and/or those responsible for negligence in the cargo-handling process. This includes taking photographs, hunting down security footage, and looking into the validity of the relevant shipping documents and drivers’ licenses.
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Source: Claimsjournal
