Dangerous Shift? Cargo thieves getting more brazen

TORONTO — Imagine driver Butch Ross’s surprise when he looked out his window on the Cross Bronx Expressway only to find two armed men jump from a pickup and onto his passenger-side running board, waving guns and demanding that he pull over.

Lucky for him, he won out that day, with the aid of a nearby exit ramp and the closest telephone pole he could find that whisked the two would-be hijackers away like a couple of flies.

“It was my second trip to New York City, and my last,” says Ross.

His friend Donald Woods was not so lucky. Woods’ murder in late June suggests you don’t have to be hauling to a U.S. inner city to be in danger.

Woods was found shot to death in his tractor and empty trailer in a Pickering, Ont. Wal-Mart parking lot. The Athens, Ont. driver had been taking a load of meat from Brockville to Toronto, leaving a Brockville A&P on the evening of June 21. Neither he nor the load made it to the destination. He left behind a wife and 13-year-old son.

In thieving terms, a load of diapers may be as
valuable as a trailer full of big screen TVs

Truckjacking is still rare in Canada. But this recent case may indicate thieves might be playing a different, more dangerous, kind of game these days.

Cargo theft is a growing crime according to Linda Paccanaro, VP Claims, Kingsway General Insurance — especially if you’re in the business of hauling metals or electronic goods.

With the cost of metals rising, thieves will go to the trouble of repackaging metal, turning ingots into wire, or vice versa. Electronics are also high-value loads, but York Region cargo squad Det. Paul LaSalle says it’s harder for the crooks to move a load of high-def TVs than, say, a load of diapers.

“A trailer load of plasma TVs might be worth half- to $1 million, but to get rid of that would be a tough go — you’re not going to get full value,” he says. “A trailer load of diapers might be worth $20,000, but the thief might get more full value from that because if you have connections within stores, you could sell a skidload to various stores and get rid of them quicker. Those are things that people buy all the time and it’s something you can get rid of easily.”

Lasalle says thefts most often happen on the weekends or at night, with thieves scouring industrial areas scoping out loaded trailers. “They typically steal a tractor first, and once they find the trailer they want, they hook it up and drive off.”

These days with the backing of violent organized crime gangs, cargo thieves are getting brazen and taking more risks. Lasalle says all Canadian organized crime groups — from the Mafia to the Triads — are in the business of stealing cargo.

“You have to have connections to move, and if you don’t have connections all the way through, you’re not going to be able to move the stuff.”