Cargo theft in California is surging, with estimated losses reaching $445 million in 2024; however, law enforcement believes the actual figure is likely much higher due to widespread underreporting of incidents. The California Highway Patrol’s Cargo Theft Task Force routinely finds warehouses stacked with stolen goods and faces crews stealing as many as five to seven truckloads per week, reports Alex Lockie of OneDrive Online. Thieves now prefer uniform loads, making resale easier through liquidation centers that often claim ignorance. Weak enforcement, combined with California’s “catch and release” policies, allows many offenders to return to crime shortly after arrest. This revolving door frustrates police, who say repeat criminals learn from prosecutions and adapt, making each case harder to crack. Lockie writes:
The California Highway Patrol’s Cargo Theft Task Force began a recent webinar by showing video footage of a warehouse stacked so high with boxes of stolen goods that the police found themselves learning to operate forklifts.
Cargo theft losses totaled $445 million in 2024, according to CargoNet data. Freight fraud, more broadly, which would include things like double brokering, takes an estimated $800 million out of the supply chain each year. […]
As for the estimated total losses of $445 million a year, he said that’s likely on the low side.
“The problem with cargo theft is I would say 75% probably goes unreported,” he said. “I look at the number as extremely low.” He noted that both the private sector and law enforcement have reasons to keep quiet about thefts. […]
“Another issue is prosecution,” Navarro noted. Because of California’s “catch and release” policies, his unit often arrests the same criminals multiple times. “It can be disappointing for us when we spend months or years on an investigation, and by the time the report is done,” the criminals are already out of jail and back to old tricks. “But we do our job either way, even if we need to catch them two, three or four times.” […]
He noted the task force has to “explain in simple terms to the jury” how they caught the criminals, including essentially an entire briefing for the crooks on the methods and sources law enforcement used to catch them. It all doubles as a “free education” for the thieves that can just try again, and smarter this time, in just a year or so.
“It gets harder and harder to catch the same crews when we keep teaching them what not to do,” said Navarro.
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