November’s Cargo Crime Numbers
As the countdown to the Christmas break began, cargo thieves remained highly active in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region in November, with a further 443 cargo losses reported to the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS) of products valued at more than €13 million, based on the 45% or 201 of these crimes sharing a loss value.
Vigilant is unable to report the highest recorded loss value for last month but, overall, 11 major incidents have so far been added to the TIS database involving losses of €100,000 or more, totalling €10,666,139 or an average of €969,649. TAPA EMEA also received reports of another 10 crimes in the €50K-€100K with a total loss of €709,609.
Once again, criminals were active right across the EMEA region in a total of 42 countries. For the third consecutive month, Germany recorded most incidents, 112 or 25.3% of all recorded incidents in November. It was one of five countries accounting for 79.9% of all crimes over the 30 days of the month. The others were:
- Spain – 72 or 16.3%
- United Kingdom – 63 or 14.2%
- Italy – 62 or 14.0%
- France – 45 or 10.2%
Of the major cargo thefts last month, Vigilant is authorised to report five of these crimes:
€. 375.654
On 10 November, thieves stole 462 miscellaneous items from an Origin Facility in Dortmund, Germany.
€. 251.000
In another incident in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on 26 November, another 804 miscellaneous products were also taken from an Origin Facility.
€. 227.335
In Chamant, Hauts-de-France, on 7 November, a large shipment of 21,296 unidentified products were stolen from an Origin Facility.
€. 165.055
1,754 miscellaneous goods were also reported stolen from a facility in the same commune in France on 24 November. This may be related to the earlier incident in Chamant or indicate a highly active cargo crime group in the vicinity.
€. 144.595
In Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, on 29 November, offenders stole 2,228 items from a trailer parked in an unreported location.
The 10 incidents with loss values of between €50K-€100K included:
- €. 81.310 – in Illescas, Spain, on 21 November, 932 products were stolen from an Origin Facility before the unknown perpetrators made their escape.
- €. 78.500 – in Gqeberha, South Africa, on 7 November a truck was hijacked by offenders driving four vehicles while it was en route to its destination carrying car parts. The tracker onboard the truck was jammed a few minutes after the incident occurred. The vehicle was later recovered but its tarpaulin curtain had been slashed open and the car parts were missing.
- €. 75.709 – on 24 November in Castel San Giovanni, Italy, 110 products were reported stolen from another Origin Facility. Other cargo thefts were recorded in the same town in October.
- €. 71.691 –in Gilwice, Poland, on 25 November, 1,385 goods were stolen from a facility. This crime is believed to have involved employees working in the building.
- €. 67.118 – on 21 November, 117 miscellaneous goods were stolen from a trailer parked outside a facility in Dortmund, Germany.
- €. 63.000 – another 1,269 miscellaneous goods were stolen from an Origin Facility in Illescas, Spain, on 21 November.
- €. 61.446 – on the same day in Bielany Wrockawskie, Poland, thieves took 3,868 items from a trailer parked at an Origin Facility.
Theft from Trailer was the type of incident recording most losses in November, 175 crimes or 39.5% of the monthly total. Overall, alongside Theft from Vehicle, Theft of Trailer and Theft of Vehicle crimes, incidents involving vehicles accounted for 70.1%% of cargo thefts reported to TIS in November. Of the known products targeted by thieves, fuel and metal were the only product types to record double digit incidents, with 23 and 17 respectively over these 30 days.
If you have cargo crime intelligence to share with TAPA EMEA, please send it to tisteam@tapaemea.org
