FreightWatch recorded 263 cargo theft incidents from July to September, showing a marked increase in cargo theft activity over the previous quarters this year.


With 73 thefts recorded in July, 110 in August and 80 in September, the quarter has an average of 87.6 thefts per month and 76.2 thefts per month year to date.

The top five states for cargo theft from July to September were California (75), Florida (38), Texas (31), New Jersey (26), and Georgia (17).

From all thefts recorded from July to September, 78% were theft of trailers; 79% of those thefts occurred at unsecured parking lots and 6% at secured parking lots.

Food/Drinks, Electronics and Building/Industrial were the most targeted product types accounting for 21%, 18% and 15% of all cargo theft respectively.

By day of the week, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were the days with the highest cargo theft activity during the time period under study.

There were five thefts this quarter in excess of $1 million from building/industrial (2), electronics, miscellaneous and consumer care product types.

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