U.S. Senate panel holds hearing on cargo thefts, a serious problem in Chicago and beyond
By some estimates, cargo thefts are a $35 billion-a-year problem with the power to disrupt supply chains, and even increase prices at the grocery store.
Now, the issue has made it to Washington and Capitol Hill.
More than $1 million worth of Nintendo Switch devices were stolen from a truck in Colorado last month.
Meanwhile in several incidents in Chicago, freight trains have been cleared out in minutes.
Last fall, CBS Skywatch was overhead as thieves pulled off one such freight train heist on Chicago's West Side. The wild scene played out for hours as several freight train cars were broken into, and dozens of people walked away with big-screen TVs.
In that October incident, police sources said Chicago police officers waited more than an hour for Union Pacific officers to respond and secure the tracks. Since then, several more incidents have made headlines in the Chicago area since then.
Such scenes have trucking company executives like Donna Lemm pleading for help. Lemm testified Tuesday before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on organized retail crime.
"A few years ago, cargo theft was barely on my company's radar," said Lemm, chief strategy officer for IMC Logistics.
Since 2021, IMC Logistics has been targeted by thieves nearly 1,500 times, Lemm said. More than 200 of the cargo thefts have been in Illinois.
"I think the frustration is, where's the recourse? And often motor carriers feel so alone," Lemm told CBS News Chicago. "These criminals feel like it's under the radar, and we have a responsibility to speak up."
Chris Spear, president of the American Trucking Associations cargo thefts have been growing more and more sophisticated. He said he has noticed a shift from opportunistic thieves to highly organized criminal enterprises that use identify theft, fraud, and cyber capabilities to steal or redirect cargo.
The money in some cases fuels cartels, terrorists, and human traffickers.
"We're talking about transnational organizations that are operating from Eastern Europe, Russia, hacking into our systems, redirecting the most valuable cargo," Spear said.
A bipartisan bill has been introduced that would create a centralized reporting system for cargo theft — an upgrade, Spear said, from the current patch work of local, state, and federal authorities trying to trace stolen goods.
"This is something that if left unattended, is going to be a serious reflection in the prices that we all pay in America for the things that we want and need," said Spear.
A company that gathers data on cargo thefts found that last year Illinois, California and Texas were the most targeted states.
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