Thieves stole $10,000 worth of beef from a parked tractor-trailer in Northeast Philadelphia early on Thursday, October 29, cutting the padlock off the trailer while the driver slept in the cab, the Philadelphia Police Department said. Officers responded at about 4:12 a.m. to the 5200 block of Devereaux in the Wissinoming section of Northeast Philadelphia after the driver reported the cargo theft, NBC10 Philadelphia reported.

Source: NBC10 Philadelphia

The driver told responding officers that he was awakened while sleeping in the cab and found an unknown number of offenders had cut a padlock on the rear of the trailer and were loading products into their vehicles, police said. He shot cellphone video of the thieves as they fled in a dark gray Nissan sedan and two dark-colored SUVs. When the driver checked the trailer afterwards, five pallets of beef, worth $10,000, were gone. Police now have the cellphone video, and an investigation into the theft is underway, WPHL reported.

Source: WPHL via 2822 News

Second frozen-food theft from a sleeping driver in two days

Thursday's theft was the second time this week that a Philadelphia truck driver woke up to find his load being stolen. Early on Tuesday, October 27, in the 3600 block of Island Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, driver Marty Muriuki woke at about 4 a.m. to his truck shaking and found thieves pulling frozen snow crab out of his trailer, CDL Life reported, citing 6ABC. That earlier theft was reported by Awaaz Punjab when it happened; this is a new, separate theft, and police are now examining both together.

Muriuki, who said he has been trucking for 30 years and had never experienced a cargo theft before, got out and confronted the men because he feared losing his job. “One guy said, ‘We’ll pay you,’ and then all of a sudden one guy charging on me so I have to run,” he told 6ABC, describing how he fled to a nearby hotel while the crew drove off in a gray Ford F-150 pickup and a gray Dodge Caravan with about 3,000 pounds of frozen snow crab, two pallets of boxes taken from his trailer.

Source: CDL Life / 6ABC

Officials told NBC10 that investigators are working to determine whether the two crimes are connected. Police have announced no arrests in either theft, and in both cases the crews worked quickly in the early hours, used several vehicles, and targeted refrigerated loads parked overnight on city streets.

Why sleeping drivers are being targeted

The pattern is one Philadelphia police have flagged before: thieves go after drivers who sleep in their trucks while waiting for early-morning delivery appointments, when trailers sit full and unattended for hours in industrial areas. CBS Philadelphia reported earlier this month, in coverage of the first thefts, that this is why parked overnight rigs are being watched. Earlier in October, masked thieves also took roughly five pallets of beef from a big rig in Northeast Philadelphia and left in a Jeep and a Ford F-150, according to police accounts reported by CBS Philadelphia; police have not said whether that case is linked to this week's two thefts.

For the large Punjabi owner-operator community that hauls refrigerated food loads up and down the East Coast, Philadelphia's overnight-street parking risk is now a working issue, not a headline: a stolen load can mean a lost customer, an insurance fight and days off the road, on top of the danger of confronting a crew at 4 a.m. Both of this week's drivers were unhurt, but Muriuki's account — charged at in the dark for trying to protect his load — shows how quickly a property crime can turn dangerous.

What happens next

Philadelphia detectives have the Thursday driver's cellphone video and the vehicle descriptions from both scenes — a dark gray Nissan sedan and two dark SUVs on Thursday; a gray Ford F-150 and a gray Dodge Caravan on Tuesday — and are working to establish whether the same crew committed both thefts. The investigation remains ongoing, police said. Anyone with information about either theft can contact the Philadelphia Police Department.