Image via News 12 Long Island
Authorities in New Jersey have a whopper of a crime to solve after someone stole $305,000 worth of seafood inside a tractor-trailer worth about $50,000. We’ve seen thieves pull off huge food-related heists before, taking meat, pistachios, even donuts on a large scale. But this one is baffling not only because of the size of the theft but also the sheer value of the food taken.
Police in California recover a stolen Hot Wheels collection.
The semi-truck with its trailer attached was sitting in a private, secure lot in Middlesex Borough, New Jersey when someone was able to get inside and start it up, driving the big rig off without a trace left behind. Or at least police don’t want to disclose what evidence they might have, for obvious reasons.
That truck was supposed to drop the massive stash of fish and other seafood off at a Costco warehouse store in Monroe, reports News 12. How the thief knew what was inside isn’t entirely clear, although police did say other trailers on the property had been opened, so someone was likely trying to find the most expensive haul to swipe and hit the motherload.
Another thing police have disclosed is they have surveillance footage from someone which shows the suspect(s) with the truck. Instead of releasing the footage to the public, it seems they might be trolling to make the thief nervous.
After all, how does one unload a semi-trailer’s worth of seafood rapidly before it goes bad? That quantity of stolen goods wouldn’t be easy to move rapidly without being noticed, unless someone has inside connections at numerous seafood restaurants which won’t ask questions about the origins of a mysterious delivery.
For now, it appears one of the lead theories on this heist is a car thief graduated from breaking into and even stealing passenger vehicles to much larger catches. That makes sense since as criminals don’t get caught, they often start targeting higher value assets as their thirst for wealth becomes unquenchable.
Image via News 12 Long Island
