Philly cargo thieves make off with $20K in frozen meat
Following an early morning cargo theft, police in Philadelphia are searching for a trio of brazen beef thieves.
On Monday, Jan. 29, police responded to a call around 1 a.m. about an active theft involving a pair of refrigerated tractor-trailers. According to police, the two drivers both were asleep in their trucks parked on Red Lion Road, waiting for a nearby Quaker Foods facility to open for a 6 a.m. delivery, when the thieves struck.
Police reports indicate that one of the drivers was “awakened” during the incident and saw a white minivan and dark-colored SUV “pulled up on the grass next to the trailer.” When the driver got out to check his load, he discovered “three unknown black males unloading cases of meat from the truck into their vehicles.”
According to police, the three men cut the locks on three trailers but only took product from two of the parked trucks. In total, the thieves made off with “four pallets of frozen meat product” from one trailer and “a case of meat” from the other. The value of the pilfered meat is around $20,000.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department told Land Line no arrests have been made in the case, and the investigation is ongoing.
When it comes to cargo theft, crooks in Philly seem to have a hankering for large quantities of meat.
In November 2023, police investigated a similar incident where 15 boxes of frozen beef were stolen from a tractor-trailer while the driver was parked overnight.
One month earlier, police responded to a heist involving $73,000 worth of crab clusters. In that instance, like the others, the driver was asleep in the cab waiting for an early morning delivery.
According to an investigative report from ABC6 in Philadelphia, cargo thefts in the city have increased significantly over the past five years. There were a mere 100 reported cargo thefts in the city in 2019, a relatively small number compared to the 257 in 2023.
Police said this week’s cargo theft is the 10th reported in the city so far this year. LL
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