California Apparel News

Cargo theft is big business in Southern California, totaling about $1 million a day.

Top items stolen include toiletries, electronics and designer clothing that often end up at swap meets or on eBay, selling for 25 percent of their value, officials said.

Cargo theft is expected to increase this spring when Southern California’s ports open their gates during evening and weekend hours under a new program called PierPass Inc.

PierPass is meant to untangle the long lines of trucks waiting to pick up goods at the busy ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by keeping terminal gates open during off-peak hours. But it may prove to be a headache for trucking companies and distribution centers that will need to watch these goods at night after they are picked up.

Criminal investigators and trucking operations are concerned that when PierPass takes effect on June 1, truckers picking up containers after 5 p.m. will be parking their loads overnight on city streets while waiting to deliver goods the next morning. The investigators said most cargo thefts occur at truck stops and on city thoroughfares.

“The highest percentage of stolen cargo is stolen from the streets than from any other location because some drivers don’t park their trucks in secure lots. They don’t have a secure lot to park them in,” said California Highway Patrol Sgt. John Antillon, who works at the ports with the Cargo Theft Interdiction Program, started in 1995 with three teams of investigators. “We will be watching this [PierPass] program to see if we track any increase in theft,” Antillon said.

Antillon was speaking at a gathering organized by the California Trucking Association on Feb. 11 in Long Beach, Calif., to honor Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza (D–Long Beach), who introduced Assembly Bill 1814 last year at the behest of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

The bill, which went into effect Jan. 1, secured increased funding for more security and public safety at the ports. It also created a new criminal category for stealing cargo. Cargo theft is now classified as grand theft rather than being lumped together with burglaries and robberies.

Baca, who was at the luncheon, noted that the new bill will put more teeth into prosecuting cargo thieves and help various jurisdictions share in investigating such matters.

”Now in the penalty phase we can take into account the value of the theft and whether a driver was harmed,” he said. “Was there more than one person involved? That would make it a conspiracy.”

Rising tide in the West

Cargo theft is growing in the Western United States, Antillon said. One of the reasons is that Southern California has the busiest port complex in the nation, accounting for 42 percent of all ocean-going cargo arriving in the United States. Increased port traffic also means that newer and larger distribution centers and warehouses are being built in areas such as San Bernardino and Riverside counties, where cargo stealing gangs from as far away as Florida come to make a heist.

“There are distribution centers in the Inland Empire with 50 to 60 docks that are popping up on a weekly basis,” the CHP officer said.

He noted that last year Sparks, Nev., had the highest increase in cargo theft for the West, caused in part by Los Angeles gangs targeting truck stops and distribution centers in the area.

Apprehending cargo thieves is a tricky business. Investigators note that cargo theft is often an inside job done through tipsters working at trucking companies or warehouses. Sometimes truck drivers are in on the theft of their own cargo, a fact that is difficult to prove, officials said.

The 10-year-old California Highway Patrol cargo theft team is aided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which has its own cargo theft division, the Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team (Cargo CATS), a multijurisdictional law enforcement program established in 1990.

Both groups find it particularly difficult to infiltrate cargo theft gangs because the robbers are closely knit groups made up of people from the same country or family.

Instead, investigators have taken to setting up decoy trucks with global positioning systems to snag cargo thieves. Officials have also set up decoy warehouses, where thieves are tempted to store their stolen goods.

Surveillance teams will often stay up all night to follow a thief in order to arrest the brains behind the scheme. “We want to identify, arrest and prosecute everyone,” Antillon said. “We’re not satisfied with arresting just the driver. We want the people who are providing the warehouses and the monetary support.”

Recently cargo thieves have become even cleverer by not storing their stolen cargo in just one warehouse. Instead, they break it up among three or four warehouses. That way, if they get caught at one location, their goods are still secure at the other warehouses.

Tips to tangle up thieves

California Highway Patrol officers suggested that trucking companies scrutinize the job applications of their potential employees to make sure thieves don’t get hired.

“Audit your hiring process and who is doing your background investigations,” Antillon suggested. “Look closely at those applications. Is there insufficient evidence about previous employment or residences? Check area codes and zip codes to make sure they match. They can send up red flags. Look at social security numbers to make sure they match.”

He proposed doing spot checks on security guards at night or early in the morning to make sure they are paying attention and not sleeping on the job.

Also, he said truck drivers should write down critical information when they pick up a load, such as the license plate number of their rigs, the registration number of the containers they are hauling and the vehicle identification number of their chassis. If there is a theft, they then have the proper information to give to law enforcement officials.

“None of us in law enforcement have enough people or money or time to do what we would like to really do,” Antillon said. “We recovered $17 million in stolen goods last year. That was a small percentage of what was reported.”