Earlier this month, a shipment of lobsters worth $400,000 that was originally destined for Costco stores was unexpectedly stolen. The logistics company, Rexing Companies, CEO Dylan Rexing stated that the case is quite complex as his company was responsible for coordinating the transportation of the goods.
The incident even caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is currently conducting an investigation.
The lobsters were intended for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the first part of the criminals’ modus operandi involved a phishing scam. Rexing mentioned that the criminals subtly altered the email domain of a legitimate shipping company, which led Rexing’s logistics company to unwittingly hire a fraudulent entity posing as the shipping company.
Subsequently, a criminal arrived at a third-party operated cooled warehouse in Taunton, Massachusetts on December 12th to pick up the lobsters. Rexing believed that the criminal impersonated a truck driver for the shipping company by presenting a forged commercial driver’s license. The thief’s truck even displayed the name and trailer number of the legitimate shipping company on its side.
After taking the lobster meat, the thief supposedly shut off the GPS tracker. Following this act, the whereabouts of the goods became unknown.
Rexing also detailed the process of the lobster theft to USA Today. He explained that the goods were scheduled to be shipped around 2 p.m. on the 12th from the warehouse in Taunton, Massachusetts. However, by 4 p.m., when the GPS tracking system of the truck was disabled, Rexing and his logistics company started to worry that the goods might have been handed over to the wrong person.
“This is definitely organized crime, no doubt about it,” he said. He further added that when reporting the incident to the Taunton Police Department, he learned that a similar case occurred on December 2nd, where another batch of stolen crabs was reported at the same cooled warehouse facility.
“In just ten days, at the same location in the same town, two batches of seafood were stolen,” he remarked.
When asked why someone would steal such a large quantity of lobsters, Rexing explained that organized groups often sell these types of goods at lower prices to make a profit. He mentioned that for this particular batch of lobsters, the profit could potentially reach up to $200,000.
Earlier this year, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) launched “Operation Boiling Point” aimed at combating Organized Retail Crime (ORC). HSI noted in their public announcement that thefts of goods result in losses ranging from $15 billion to $35 billion annually.
Rexing emphasized that these thefts would ultimately cause consumers to pay more when shopping at supermarkets.
Costco did not respond to media requests for comments.