Toilet paper, gloves, food: Cargo thefts spike 35%

Thousands of dollars in paper supplies “flying off the back of trailers” at truck stops.

The pandemic has even shifted the habits of thieves.

Cargo thefts of hard- to- find paper goods, personal protective equipment and food soared in 2020 as the black market for such items flourished during COVID- 19.

Thieves have swiped everything from ventilators to toilet paper, according to data provided to USA TODAY by CargoNet, which tracks cargo loss incidents and advises authorities on how to avoid them. In some cases, organized criminals have targeted semitrucks, while in other cases ordinary people have engaged in crimes of opportunity.

Recorded incidents of cargo thefts – from major to minor incidents – increased 35% to 1,176 during the first 10 months of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, according to CargoNet.

The biggest spikes occurred in April, May and June when thefts increased 62% compared with the same period in 2019.

But thefts have increased every month, compared with a year earlier, including a 48% increase in September and 18% in October.

Keith Lewis, vice president of operations at Verisk Analytics- owned Cargo

Net, said the company has tracked a significant increase in “pilferages” – a crime that typically involves taking items from the back of a truck instead of stealing the entire rig.

The nation’s pandemic shortage of household paper goods led to a 130% increase in thefts of those items during the first 10 months of the year.

“Paper supplies, toilet paper, those types of things were just flying off the back of trailers at rest stops, truck stops and other parking lots,” Lewis said.

“Paper supplies, toilet paper were just flying off the back of trailers ...” Keith Lewis CargoNet

$ 40,000 thefts

In 10 cases, thieves made off with entire truckloads of paper goods, including three such incidents in the DallasFort Worth area from late March

through early June, according to CargoNet. The average truckload of paper goods is worth $ 15,000 to $ 40,000, the firm says.

With many stores facing shortages in the early months of the pandemic, cargo thefts of food and beverage products also jumped. There were 166 incidents of cargo theft of such items during the first 10 months of 2020, up 29% from the same period a year earlier. That made food and beverage items the most targeted category for thieves.

Thieves often aim for a truck stop where they can “take a few items off of each trailer” and then sell them to a buyer, such as a retailer that “can comingle it in their store and it doesn't look like an anomaly,” Lewis said.

Organized crews of thieves

In many cases, thieves “are going to be organized crews” that target specific stops along roadways like the Interstate 294 tollway in Illinois or the Interstate 75 corridor in Florida, Lewis said.

With two or more people, it qualifies as organized crime, but that doesn't mean they're particularly sophisticated, he said.

It may be “two guys whose IQs don't come up to room temperature together,” Lewis said.

Cargo thefts of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies – a crime that is usually rare due to tighter security protocols, Lewis said, doubled to 34.

In many cases, thieves have stolen items like N95 masks that are valuable on the open market.

$ 1M worth of medical gloves

CargoNet tracked what it called 17 “large- scale thefts of medical supplies like personal protective equipment” in the first 10 months of 2020, averaging nearly $ 315,000 per incident.

Many of those incidents occurred in California and Florida.

For example, on Oct. 25, thieves swiped millions of medical gloves from a container in Coral Springs, Florida.

The haul, worth about $ 1 million, was later recovered after a tip called into the Medley Police Department led authorities to two warehouses where the stolen gloves were being housed.

Two men were arrested in connection with the crime.

On Aug. 9, two Miami men are accused of having stolen 192 ventilators in Palm Beach County that were being sent to El Salvador to treat critically ill COVID- 19 patients.

Most of them were later recovered and the men were indicted after an FBI probe in coordination with local authorities, according to CargoNet.

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/ AP Recorded incidents of cargo thefts rose 35% to 1,176 during the first 10 months of 2020.

FILE PHOTO BY STAN HONDA/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Sometimes organized crews of thieves target busy roadways such as northbound I- 75 in Sarasota, Florida.