Truck thefts increase 15% from second quarter

   During the third quarter, 231 domestic trucking thefts occurred, a 15-percent increase in volume from the second quarter, according to FreightWatch International.
   Monthly, the most thefts (81) occurred in September, with 76 thefts happening in August, and 74 thefts taking place in July. Across the entire quarter, the per-incident value averaged out to $154,866, a 5-percent fall in value compared to the second quarter. When compared to the third quarter of 2012, these results are flat in terms of the number of thefts but represent a 15-percent drop in value.
   Thieves primarily targeted shipments in the food and drink industry, and these thefts represented 21 percent of the total number of incidents. Electronics (13 percent), home and garden supplies (11 percent), and metals (9 percent) were also popular targets during the quarter. Thieves concentrated on televisions and computer components when targeting electronics and went after appliances, and they cleaning products in the home and garden sector, FreightWatch wrote in its third-quarter cargo theft report.
   The majority of the thefts during the quarter happened in California, which claimed 31 percent of the total volume. With 30 thefts, Florida represented 13 percent of the total. Chicago-based thefts helped Illinois tie with Texas for the states with the third-largest number of thefts; both states represented 12 percent of the total volume.
   In the report, FreightWatch noted that direct thefts by the driver or thefts involving driver complicity have been on the increase.
   “Thefts within the driver-theft type have been more or less on the rise in volume since 2009, with a sharp increase from 2011 to September of 2013,” the company wrote. “Typically a crime of opportunity, thefts by drivers fluctuate in value year on year. Already at an all-time high with 40 incidents logged in the first three quarters of 2013 … these thefts are expected to continue to rise through the year.”