Overview
- The truckload of about 40,000 pounds of processed lobster meat was picked up Dec. 12 from Lineage Logistics in Taunton, Massachusetts, for Costco warehouses in Illinois and Minnesota and never arrived.
- Rexing Companies says a fraudster posed as a legitimate carrier using spoofed emails and burner phones, then disabled GPS, changed truck signage, and used a counterfeit digital driver’s license.
- Federal authorities are investigating, with the FBI engaged and coordination reported among multiple field offices; no arrests or recoveries have been announced.
- The case is the second reported seafood theft tied to the same Taunton cold-storage facility this month, following a Dec. 2 crab load that also went missing.
- Rexing calls the $400,000 loss significant for a mid-sized brokerage and says insurance coverage is uncertain, while industry groups cite a sharp rise in cargo theft and highlight perishables’ vulnerability; federal efforts include HSI’s Operation Boiling Point and DOT inquiries.