Heists Targeting Truckers On Rise

Thieves are swiping tractor-trailers filled with goods, triggering a spike in cargo theft on the nation's highways. Over five days last month, an 18-wheeler carrying 710 cartons of consumer electronics was stolen from a Pennsylvania rest stop, a 53-foot-long rig packed with 43,000 pounds of paper was ripped off in Ottawa, Ill., and a 40-foot-long truck filled with reclining armchairs went missing in Atlanta.

Truckloads containing $487 million of goods were stolen in the U.S. in 2009, a 67% increase over the $290 million worth of products swiped a year earlier. Thieves stole 859 truckloads in 2009, up from 767 loads in 2008 and 672 in 2007, according to FreightWatch International, an Austin, Texas-based supply-chain security firm that maintains a database of thefts that several government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, look to for trends.

"In the past two months, we've just seen such an increase that it's to the point where criminals are just wreaking havoc," said Sandor Lengyel, a detective sergeant and squad leader in New Jersey State Police's cargo-theft unit. "They'll pretty much steal anything." Cargo thieves ripped off $28 million in goods in New Jersey in 2009, an 87% spike from the $15 million stolen in 2008, he said. Law-enforcement authorities in Illinois, California and Pennsylvania are among several agencies and industry groups also reporting a spike.

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Rising SA gold theft funding 'terrorism, human trafficking'

Increasing gold theft from South African mines was funding international terrorism and human trafficking and amounted to a global money-laundering operation of huge magnitude, Pan African Resources CEO Jan Nelson said yesterday.

"Dirty money is coming in and clean gold is going out," Nelson stated during the company's annual results presentation, where Pan African reported a 15% increase in underground gold production and 30% earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. “It's a money-laundering operation on a huge scale. We have to attack this problem at various levels and the role players are interacting and there is assistance from government," he said.

Pan African's security costs have risen to close to 3%, which represents a total of $15/oz of gold produced. Of that $15/oz, $7/oz goes directly towards fighting criminal miners. "Interpol is involved, because the money leaves South Africa and it's funding international terrorism and it's also funding human trafficking."

"Organised crime and terrorism: Observations from Southern Africa", Institute for Security Studies, March, 2005.

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Scrap Metal and Gold Thefts on the Rise

Aside from auto design engineers, garage mechanics and gear heads, who cares about a run-of-the-mill catalytic converter? Increasingly, scrap metal thieves do, and here’s why.

Catalytic converters, one of the key cogs in an auto’s emission control system, are a veritable treasure chest of valuable scrap components. Converters include three precious metals: platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Each of these metals trade on the global commodity exchanges and, as of early March, were commanding high prices: platinum at $1,070 an ounce; palladium at $205 an ounce; and rhodium at $1,200 an ounce. That’s a $2,495 payday for a scrap metal thief who harvests one ounce of each of these.

The hours are good, too. Snagging a converter on the sly isn’t difficult for someone who knows that they’re doing—thieves often make off with them in 60 seconds or less.

For consumers who are the victims of scrap metal theft, the cost can be high. Replacing a catalytic converter can cost up to $2,000.

Resources:

• "Google Earth Used for Scrap Metal Theft", Tech-Ex, 3/16/09.
• "Scrap Metal and Gold Thefts on the Rise", Main Street, 3/11/09.
• "Partnering to Combat Metal Theft", ISRI.
• "Minimizing Your Exposure to Scrap Metal Theft", The Hartford, 2009.
• "The Big Meltdown", Guardian, UK, 6/25/08.
• "Recyclers urged to fight rise in scrap metal theft", Canada.com, 4/18/08.
• "Red Gold Rush: The Copper Theft Epidemic", CSO, 2/1/07.
• "Scrap-Metal Theft a Growing Global Problem", Fox News, 1/19/06.
• Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries website.
• Stop Metal Thefts website.
  

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