WFAA - Interview on Cargo Theft:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Crime-by-the-Truckload-92917879.html
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Protect yourself
Posted By Brooke Wisdom
On 06.1.10 @ 6:00 AM In Feature, Featured Article, Magazine | No Comments
Trucks parked in isolated areas, especially when left unattended, are particularly vulnerable to gangs of cargo thieves.
Smart decisions on where you park, what you say and how you operate will help prevent theft.
David P. Gaibis Sr. thought he had done the right things to protect his load. The owner-operator parked under a flood light at the truck stop in Weatherford, Texas, and locked his truck before heading into the restaurant. When he returned, his tractor and flatbed with 44,000 pounds of copper blocks were gone. The truck stop’s security guard called local police.
Gaibis lost not only his 2000 Western Star and 2006 48-foot flatbed, but his tarps, straps, chains, wallet with $200, CB radio, GPS unit and cell phone. Without his ID, his wife had to wire him money to ride the bus home to New Castle, Pa.
“I feel violated,” says Gaibis, 72, who’s leased to Packer Transport. “I’m bitter and upset. I’m always looking around now.”
The Oct. 24, 2009, theft was the first in Gaibis’ 51 years as a trucker. On Nov. 30, his tractor was recovered in Louisiana. The trailer and copper haven’t been recovered.
As Gaibis learned, owner-operators need to stay alert, be aware of their surroundings and practice a few tricks of the trade to keep thieves at bay. Here are a few pointers to reduce the odds of becoming a cargo theft victim.
Be careful where you park
At a truck stop, seek out spaces in front rows, close to fuel islands and the restaurant, and directly under lights. “If you’re in the back row, no one is watching the back of your trailer,” says Dale French, a driver instructor at Schneider National.
Avoid truck stops that are in remote areas or don’t appear to be busy – you want many sets of eyes watching out for you and your cargo. Frequent truck stops where you can back up your trailer against another trailer, says Rusty Wade, an owner-operator leased to M&M American. “Maybe you can back up against the back door of a moving van and tell the driver to wake you up when they’re leaving,” he says.
Use of a security patrol at a truck stop is by no means a guarantee of safety. “To me it’s a red flag,” says Bob Caffee, who with his wife Linda is leased to FedEx Custom Critical.
Wade says parking at casinos, whose security departments often will train a camera at the back of your trailer while you rest, can be a smart move. Other potential parking places are against buildings where you can back up your trailer for protection. “It might be an industrial park where you’ve been before,” he says. “When the workers come to work in the morning, the most that will happen is they’ll tell you to move.”
Dick McCorkle, who’s leased to Perkins Specialized Transportation, often hauls trade show equipment to convention centers and store fixtures to retail malls. He suggests calling the receiver where you’re delivering to see if parking is permitted. “They’ll usually say if they advise against it, or if they have security,” he says.
Avoid long-term parking at rest areas and highway shoulders and ramps. Also, taking your load home is a no-no because of the lack of security, says Walt Fountain, Schneider’s director of enterprise security.
Watch what you say and do
The less you say about what you’re hauling and where you’re going, the better. That includes “on the CB or in casual conversation at a truck stop,” French says. For years, Wade says, he always said he hauled used office furniture or toilet paper if anyone asked.
Be careful on websites like Facebook and Twitter, says Linda Caffee. Her advice is to make comments that might identify your location only after you’ve left those places. She also post-dates things she says on her blogs by a day or two.
Cargo theft experts say one tactic used by thieves is to tail trucks from a warehouse or drop yard. For any high-value load, a key Schneider procedure is to leave a terminal or truck stop with a full tank and be able to drive at least 200 miles before stopping, Fountain says. Linda Caffee advises taking a bathroom break and buying food for the cab before starting. Driver teams should make sure one of them is always visible in the cab.
Keeping an eye on other traffic is essential to avoiding theft. Wade says if you suspect someone is following you, slow down and let the vehicle pass you. Or take the next exit and see if the trailing vehicle does likewise. He also advises calling a trusted colleague who might be in the area or heading for a secure location.
“One time, as a last resort, I drove to a police station and parked outside,” he says. “Whoever was following me never showed up and I never went inside to bother the police.”
Whenever possible, avoid stops, such as for apparent breakdowns on the shoulder. Calling for help can be the more prudent response.
Drivers should carry with them a 3*5 card with truck and trailer license tag numbers, truck vehicle identification number and insurance information, recommends Doug Morris, director of safety and security operations for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. In case of theft, that information is more important to law enforcement than the truck make, model and color, he says.
Because some thefts are not immediately noticed, it’s important to pay close attention to your equipment and load during your trip. Fountain estimates that if a theft is reported within two hours, the recovery rate is “better than 50-50.” If the report is four hours after the act, the recovery chances fall to 25 percent. After six hours, recovery is less than 5 percent.
French says trailer integrity verification checks should be done even if you have an empty trailer. McCorkle always puts a plastic security seal on his trailer doors, even when the trailer is empty. If he sees the seal’s been broken, he’ll look inside to see if something has been placed there.
Consider security devices
Security equipment varies from a high-quality padlock or fifth wheel trailer locking mechanism costing around $20 (www.gladhandlock.com [1]) to elaborate security systems costing $2,000 or more.
A locking device that fits over the air valve buttons on the dashboard, costing about $80, keeps the brakes from being released. Fountain recommends the Air Cuff Lock (www.transportsecurity.com [2]), while Gaibis has installed War-Lok brake locks for his truck and trailer. Kingpin locks range from $30 to $90 and provide theft protection for dropped trailers.
The Caffees have installed a panic button (about $175 through Qualcomm) in their truck and on their key chains to contact officials if they detect trouble with a sensitive load. The panic button saves time and directly alerts federal marshals in an emergency.
“Once, when a driver was following us in Texas, I could not shake him and we drove pretty slow,” Linda says. “Turns out the driver was sleepy and using our truck as something to follow. That’s as close as we’ve come to using the button.”
They also spent about $100 to have the 2005 Freightliner’s door hinges and hinge pins welded so they can’t be removed.
Both the Caffees and Wade have security cameras on their trucks. About four years ago, Wade paid about $600 for a four-camera system, which he declined to name for security reasons, that gives him photos every 30 seconds. The Caffees paid about double that for a four-camera system with microphones that gives views on the right side of their straight truck with 22-foot box, on the back of the box and inside the box. “They have more than paid for themselves” by avoiding accidents, Linda says.
Tracking systems using GPS can be installed inside trailers. For example, GPSit (www.gpsit.com [3]), costing $500 to $600, uses a battery-powered GPS device for tracking. Add another $20 to $50 for monthly service based on the number of “locates” that you want to pay for, says Netzer Ruperto, president.
LoJack, well-known for its passenger car security devices, also offers trucking-related security services. For owner-operators, the company has tracking devices for truck and trailer that are activated upon theft. Prices range from $300 to $2,500, plus monthly fees of $20 to $50 for airtime.
The company is developing an early warning system that might appeal to owner-operators, says Bob Furtado, president and CEO of LoJack Supply Chain Integrity. “If the driver has a key fob, and the truck starts moving when it’s not supposed to, it sends an early warning signal and the driver is contacted to see if it’s a theft or something else,” he says.
Secure trailer parking lots
A year ago, John Glavin launched Secure Trailer Depot and opened its first facility in El Paso, Texas. “Quickly we had as many as 350 trailers a night in there,” says Glavin, formerly a private investigator.”
STD and other such operators offer gated, 24-hour trailer lots equipped with security lighting and surveillance cameras. At the entrance to Glavin’s facilities, trailers are photographed on all four sides. When the trailer departs, it is photographed again and the pictures are compared with the entry shots to verify it’s the same trailer. A bar code is affixed to each trailer to facilitate billing and monitoring by STD and the customer, which tracks trailer departures via the internet.
Most customers are charged a monthly fee per parking space of $115 to $275, depending upon the facility’s location. Infrequent customers can pay a daily fee.
Glavin says Schneider National, Knight Transportation and Dart Transit are among carriers signing up for STD locations. He adds that some smaller carriers are inquiring about using STD locations as mini-terminals.
STD also has facilities in Dallas, West Memphis, Ark., and Jackson, Miss. Glavin says locations in Fontana, Calif.; Pennsauken, N.J.; Chicago; and Atlanta are planned for this year.
Where to report a heist
If you become a cargo theft victim, call 911 for help immediately. Local or state police can rapidly report the incident to area law enforcement.
Those who subscribe to a cargo theft reporting service should call it next.
TRACER: Alert to report stolen rigs
When Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association members discover their tractor-trailer or cargo is missing, many report their loss to OOIDA’s TRACER Alert, which goes out to members who’ve signed up for the service – as well as other truckers – and is posted on the association’s TRACER website www.tracersystem.us [4]. There is no cost for the service other than the organization’s regular annual membership fee of $45.
In place since early 2009, the system had sent out 152 alerts as of late April. This has resulted in a 38 percent recovery rate for equipment within 10 days, though no cargo has been recovered from the TRACER alerts, says OOIDA’s Doug Morris.
CargoNet: Crime reporting and victim assistance
CargoNet is a new way to report cargo thefts and to be protected from them, says the service’s managing director, Maurizio Scrofani.
The network makes use of databases from the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the Insurance Services Office, among others. This adds a more intense level of secure reporting and analysis for sharing information among victims, their insurers and law enforcement, thereby improving chances for solving the crimes, Scrofani says.
If an owner-operator reports a theft, money for food, shelter and a ride home will be wired to him. Owner-operators with one truck can pay $50 to $100 for annual service. – Lucinda Coulter
Under attack
June 1, 2010
| by: Lucinda Coulter
Carriers and law enforcement are fighting
cargo theft harder than ever, but it’s no time to relax. Shrewd thieves targeting
unsuspecting owner-operators are stealing record amounts of freight and equipment.
Owner-operator Frank Burgwin left the engine running on his locked Freightliner FLD and
rushed into the Earle, Ark., truck stop to grab a takeout hamburger. He planned to be back at his
But when he stepped out of the store, he felt his stomach tighten. His tractor and the flatbed with
Burgwin says he thought it might be a joke. “Then it hit me,” says Burgwin.
He and the off-duty Consolidated Freight driver who gave him a ride found the tractor that day
off of I-40 near West Memphis, Ark., close to a truck stop. A trailer stolen from south Texas was
hooked to his truck. Never recovered were the cargo and trailer, owned by Prime Inc., to whom
Cargo theft has worsened since Burgwin’s incident more than a decade ago, with steady
increases since 2005. The crime spiked 12 percent in one year to a record high in 2009.
The FBI estimates cargo theft losses range from $10 billion to $15 billion annually. Add indirect
costs – such as law enforcement, loss of sales and revenue, costs to carriers and insurers – and
the total is two to four times that. In addition, many thefts go unreported.
Experts say this trend is due to increasingly organized crime rings, tough economic times and
lenient sentencing for those who are convicted. In response, many in the supply chain have
increased preventive efforts and cooperate more closely with law enforcement and insurers.
Truckers are a key part of the close communication experts say is needed to fight the crime. They
are also among the victims. For example, an owner-operator might suffer when both cargo and
equipment are stolen, or when insurance fails to provide adequate coverage, or when a carrier
maintains a strict policy of releasing leased operators who have experienced cargo theft.
While California, Florida and Texas historically have had the most cargo theft due to those
states’ trade ports and routes, thefts have risen in inland states such as Georgia, Tennessee and
Illinois. Much cargo is stolen on weekends and flows to Latin America or South America, says
Ed Petow, law enforcement liaison with FreightWatch International and former commander of
Florida’s Miami-Dade Police Department’s cargo theft unit.
Like Burgwin’s, most cargo is stolen at truck stops, but last
year more secured and unsecured parking lots were hit, as well as terminals and warehouses.
Recession-fueled demand and websites such as Craig’s List and eBay have made selling illegal
goods easier and more anonymous, says Dan Burges, FreightWatch International spokesman.
Thieves can figure out where distribution centers are for certain products, Petow says.
“They watch the trucks leaving and follow them,” he says. “Any load that could be easily sold,
like computers and food, is vulnerable.” Most of the crimes are highly organized, especially for
high-value loads of consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals, Petow says. In the United States,
cargo thieves are mostly nonviolent but have blink-of-the-eye finesse, says Sgt. T.J. Salazar of
the Houston Police Department. “They’re pretty well pre-planned on what they’re after, dispose
of their property pretty quick and take it to a warehouse,” says Salazar, an auto and cargo theft
specialist. “Unless you catch them in the act, it’s very difficult to solve.”
The security industry is quick to adapt the latest technologies, such as GPS and other wireless
systems, but thieves play leapfrog. They often use inexpensive two-way radios, which can’t be
tracked, and are savvy about disabling tractors or trailers equipped with GPS systems that arevisible, experts say.
“What we’re seeing is more sophisticated techniques with use of cell phones, or they go into a
plant with fake paper work,” says Lt. Twan Uptgrow, of Miami-Dade Police Department’s cargo
theft unit, the nation’s oldest multi-agency task force devoted to the crime.
Crooks tend to distract drivers with commotion or prostitutes. Sometimes they break into a trailer
while drivers sleep and unload cargo into pickups, or they break into an unattended cab and hot-
wire it. “These guys can steal your rig in about 90 seconds,” says J.J. Coughlin, law enforcement
services director at LoJack Supply Chain Integrity.
In the United States, it’s so easy to steal cargo that the thieves don’t need excessive amounts of
sophisticated gadgetry, Petow says. Thefts are more sophisticated and more violent in Europe
and Latin America, he says.
Other proven methods include bribing a driver to drop a load, gaining inside knowledge from
company employees, or driving a truck and giving counterfeit paperwork to security guards. In
2009 there was a spike in armed robberies at warehouses, hijackings where drivers were forced
out at exit ramps or stop lights at gunpoint, and thefts of tractor-trailers.
Dallas police say this cargo heist was foiled in 2008 when a patrol officer spotted the stolen
trailer in a field.
In California alone, nearly 300 tractors and trailers were stolen in 2009. About a third are
unrecovered and thought to have moved south of the border, says crime analyst Merri Hawkins
of the California Highway Patrol. Much of the recovered equipment was stripped of tires and
major parts.
One of California’s 2009 truck thefts happened to former owner-operator Michael Keith, of La
Verne, Calif. His 2003 Freightliner Columbia was stolen from a Pomona, Calif., street, where it
was parked overnight, in January 2009, only seven months after he bought it. A city with a large
trucking hub, Pomona averages about 12 trucks stolen monthly, police told Keith.
“When you leave your truck, put a kill switch in it or a tracking device,” advises Keith,
50. “Make sure you buy the right insurance for your truck that will cover the down payment and
loss of possessions.” Having something like household insurance would have helped in the loss
of tools, map books and family gifts, he says.
Rehired as a driver by his former company, Keith is trying to save $10,000 for a tractor down
payment.
John Bertling, CEO of Best Sand & Trucking in Iola, Texas, is still recovering from the
$300,000 worth of equipment the ring’s conspirators stole from his lot last year.
Michael Keith had owned his 2003 Freightliner Columbia less than a year when it was stolen
from a Pomona, Calif., street.
Thieves drove two of Bertling’s new Peterbilt 379s and pneumatic trailers from the company’s
parking lot on Jan. 17, 2009, and security cameras recorded the tractors crossing the Mexican
border. Salazar and others discovered the thieves got the trucks’ serial numbers and had keys
made for them. Bertling later installed GPS units and Lo-Jacks in the cement company’s trucks
so that if anyone bothers his equipment, a signal warns police officers.
The increase in cargo theft last year caught carriers by surprise, experts say. Many carriers
ramped up security at facilities and others trained drivers for theft prevention. Although cargo
thefts increased in the first quarter 2010 from the same period last year, there was a “decrease in
reported incidents occurring in carrier facilities,” says Coughlin, who directs the Supply Chain
Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
Prime, which delivers time-sensitive refrigerated foods, includes a four-day class on cargo and
equipment theft in its driver orientation. A former FBI special agent, Prime Security Director
James Morton supervises a 22-member staff of former law enforcement officers and works with
volunteer task forces across state lines, he says.
Drivers are often bribed into dropping a load, a practice that many say has worsened during the
recession. Aware of such risks, Morton does “the best background check we can do,” meets
weekly with drivers and sends them crime alerts. Meetings with truck stop owners have started,
as well, because cargo thefts are hurting their business, Morton says.
Thieves were offloading plasma TVs from a stolen trailer onto a straight truck when patrol
officers stopped them. “The crooks escaped, but most of the load was recovered,” Dallas Police
Sgt. Dave Landry says.
Joe Wehrle, chief executive officer of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, says the bureau has
retrained some of its agents to cover cargo theft, which increased over car thefts in the last few
years. In refrigerated loads such as food and pharmaceuticals, costs are astronomical for insurers
and the health risk to consumers is immeasurable. “Once you get a trailer stolen, the chain of
custody to insure that no one could tamper with the cargo is lost,” Wehrle says.
Historically, truckers waiting over the weekend for receiving facilities to open are prime targets
for cargo thefts. “This schedule often leaves truck drivers with few alternatives to secure their
loads,” Coughlin says. “The thieves are well aware of these vulnerabilities.”
But last year, carriers and shippers formed tighter networks to allay that problem, says American
Trucking Associations’ Susan Chandler, director of its supply chain security council. She says
last year UPS, Con-way, Swift Transportation and Old Dominion heightened security in response
to thefts, many of them in Dallas, Houston, Laredo and El Paso, Texas.
Salazar and Coughlin helped form the nonprofit
Transborder International Police network four years ago to thwart cargo theft and other crimes
across U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. They say network members’ work is critical,
especially in the border region of Tamaulipas, Mexico, where murders and kidnappings are
commonplace. “The situation has gotten out of control,” Salazar says.
Despite tight budgets, Illinois and Georgia recently formed special cargo theft units. Special
Agent John Cannon, head of Georgia’s Bureau of Investigation’s major theft unit, says he
and other agents opened 71 cases and made 50 arrests since its January 2009 launch. In that
time his unit seized $17 million in stolen goods, and assistedin collecting $1.2 million in drug
Cannon says the state’s hot spots for cargo theft are Atlanta and along the I-95 corridor in
Savannah. Cannon talks daily with federal agents and Florida police and meets monthly with the
Southeastern Transportation Security Council, a group of businesses in the supply chain.
“This requires a lot of interaction with private industry, or in some cases with individual owner-
operators,” Cannon says. “We recover loads before they’re ever reported stolen.”
Two years ago, Sgt. Steven Covey headed the then newly formed Illinois State Police cargo theft
unit to fight increasing crime in Chicago’s major shipping hub. His team has worked on more
than 70 cargo theft cases, made 21 arrests and recovered more than $4 million worth of goods.
“Warehouse burglaries and organized crime in cargo theft – these are on the increase,” Covey
says. For example, $75 million worth of antidepressants was taken in March from an Eli Lilly &Co. warehouse in Enfield, Conn.
The harsh economy, which has lowered tax revenues available for most publicly funded
services, has taken a toll on law enforcement units. “Cargo thieves know they can go basically
undetected,” says Uptgrow, of Miami-Dade Police. “This problem is just too big without more
federal funding.” n
Fighting a high-pay, low-risk crime
Nearly 10 years ago, Sheriff Ed Dean of Marion County, Fla., stamped out cargo theft in his
county. That was only the start of his crusade.
Since 2002, he’s advocated stiffer penalties for a crime that typically draws light prison
sentences, is highly profitable and easy to get away with, and generally escapes public attention.
In 2006, Dean and the National Insurance Crime Bureau started a national cargo theft task force.
The group pushes for funding for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to pursue thefts, a uniform
system for reporting them and stiffer penalties for the crimes.
“Thieves are moving out of drugs and moving into cargo theft,” says Dean. He cracked down
on cargo thieves in Marion County by authorizing sheriff’s detective Thomas Bibb to run
undercover operations at four truck stops near I-75. Thefts countywide dropped from $1.2
million to zero. Cargo theft, he says, “is so lucrative, with the potential for supporting terrorism,
and is so easy to get away with.”
Prison sentences vary widely by state because cargo thefts can be classed as robbery, burglary,
grand theft or theft of property or vehicles, and often have no mandatory minimum sentence. If
convicted of cargo theft at the federal level, thieves can be sentenced to a maximum sentence of
10 years.
Task force members are urging Congress to make a cargo theft statute with minimum mandatory
sentencing for first-, second- and third-time offenders.
“You’re arresting the same people over and over and over again for stealing millions of dollars
of cargo,” Bibb says.
Dean and others celebrated a small victory when the FBI implemented the Uniform Crime
Reporting Code for cargo theft, the first time a new code has been made since 1990. It offers a
standard method to report thefts in the bureau’s crime database.
“It’s going to take some time to populate that database,” says Chuck Forsaith, supply chain
security director at Purdue Pharma Technologies, which makes the painkiller Oxycontin. “But
it will allow the FBI and everyone else to know how bad cargo theft is.” Forsaith’s department
recovered $75 million in pharmaceutical thefts last year and $17 million the year before. |
