A truck driver arrived at a Taunton, Massachusetts, lot to pick up a refrigerated trailer packed with lobster. The trucker had emailed ahead of time. He arrived on schedule, hooked up to the load, and promised to deliver it to Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota. Then he turned tail and disappeared. Now, authorities are fishing for leads.

The market value of the stolen lobster: about $400,000. Talk about a shellfish crime!

Why lobster made an ideal target

Why go after crustaceans? Chris Burroughs, the president and chief executive of the Transportation Intermediaries Association, explained, “They want to target things that they can do quickly. TVs have serial numbers … lobsters obviously don’t, so they’re harder to track.”

So how did the thieves pull off the gourmet heist? “There was a dash in the email. That was the only difference from the real company.” The criminals used the fake address to butter up the supplier and change the pickup time. “The person came in, took off with the load, and who knows where it is now.”

Grand theft crustacean is far from a victimless crime. The owner of the company that was supposed to pick up the lobster put it bluntly. “It directly impacts businesses and contributes to higher prices for consumers.”

“Cargo theft is a growing concern for the U.S. transportation system, costing the economy billions annually. These crimes involve opportunistic ‘straight thefts’ of trailers, containers, and loads at truck stops or multimodal distribution hubs, as well as highly coordinated operations conducted by organized criminal networks. Both categories create significant economic losses, disrupt supply chains, and in some cases fund broader illicit activities such as narcotics trafficking, counterfeiting, and human smuggling.” — Department of Transportation