Thieves pick wrong cargo

Cargo theft is no joke, and recent crime figures indicate the problem has only increased during the pandemic, particularly for high-value items like laptops and smartphones that are now in short supply. But sometimes, attempts at theft go comically awry, such as a recent episode where thieves stole a crate of GPS trackers and were swiftly apprehended by police.

The action began on July 6, when two aspiring thieves looted a FedEx dropoff box at an office park near San Jose, California. Unaware that the escapade had been captured on a nearby security camera, the thieves undoubtedly thought they had gotten away with the heist. But they were in for a surprise: What the pair thought was a package of consumer electronics they could easily sell was actually a load of GPS trackers meant to track Covid-19 vaccines in transit.

Even worse for the criminals, the package’s shipper was supply chain visibility solutions provider Roambee, which instantly began logging hourly position data on the package as the thieves drove around with the purloined trackers in their trunk. Investigators with the Santa Clara Police Department soon procured an arrest warrant for the thieves and apprehended the two without incident on July 18.

And in case any future criminals are reading this, we should note that this wasn’t even the first time this has happened to Roambee. An incident three years ago played out nearly the same way, and also led to an arrest.