A Massachusetts shipping facility is reportedly at the center of a federal investigation into an alleged heist of a $400,000 shipment of live lobster bound for Costco locations in Minnesota and Chicago.
That’s according to the CEO of an Indiana-based freight brokerage company managing the shipment from a facility in Taunton to Costco stores in the Midwest.
Dylan Rexing, who heads The Rexing Companies, has said that nine truckloads of products were stolen within five days earlier this month, with the lobsters valued at over $250,000.
In an interview with Fox 32 Chicago last week, Rexing said the FBI is investigating the case, with the investigation being in its “early” stages.
“It is pretty safe to say that this is a theft ring of some sort,” Rexing said. “I’m not sure exactly who is involved, but yeah, it is a big problem. I’m not so sure that it’s necessarily an inside job, at least in our office or inside the shipping location where it’s shipped from.”
“But I was aware that this particular load was being picked up in Taunton, Massachusetts,” the CEO added, “and it was headed to Minnesota and Chicago, different club locations.”
The Taunton shipping facility is running into issues with alleged thefts. Rexing highlighted how police informed him of stolen crabs from the same shipping location just 10 days before the lobster heist.
“$400,000 is a lot of people we could hire, so it’s a little heartbreaking,” Rexing said in his interview with the Chicago news outlet. “Our business, overall, we have over 100 employees, so it’s a large pill to swallow for us.”
The federal Homeland Security Investigations launched an initiative earlier this year, dubbed “Operation Boiling Point,” that looks to take down organized theft groups targeting cargo and retail supply chains.
Federal authorities have said thefts cost the economy $15 to $35 billion annually.
“This is not a mom-and-pop organization,” Rexing said. “These folks are out there looking for products that you buy in the store, and they’re looking for easy targets, higher value goods, easily moved. We need our government organizations to do more.”
