Six men stole about 3,000 pounds of frozen snow crab from the back of a tractor-trailer in Southwest Philadelphia early on Tuesday, October 27, while the driver slept in the cab, and chased the driver down the street when he stepped out to confront them, Philadelphia police said. The theft happened on Island Avenue — police were called to the 3400 block at about 4:57 a.m., NBC10 Philadelphia reported; 6abc located it on the 3600 block and put the time at around 4 a.m. No one was injured and no arrests had been reported.
Source: NBC10 Philadelphia, reporting Philadelphia Police
According to police, the driver was woken by the sounds of movement in his truck. When he looked out, he saw six men removing boxes of frozen snow crab from the rear of the trailer and loading them into other vehicles. He got out of the cab to confront the group — and one of the men ran after him along the street, several outlets reported, citing police. The rest of the cargo was left untouched.
Source: NBC10 Philadelphia; CBS Philadelphia; FOX 29; 6abc
The driver was identified in NBC10's reporting, carried by trucking outlet ATruckDrivers, as Marty Muriuki of Webster, Massachusetts, who said he has been driving for more than 30 years and that this had never happened to him before. Muriuki said he had parked on Island Avenue after failing to find an overnight lot and thought the area was safe. He said the shaking of the trailer woke him: “As I was dreaming, I felt the shaking and I wake up and I think ‘uh oh, I have some company.’ And I look back and I saw four, five cars.” He said he told the men, “Hey, stop! That's enough! I don't want to lose my job,” that one man offered to pay him and another charged at him, and that he ran down the street to a Residence Inn hotel. “I was not trying to be a hero,” he said.
Source: NBC10 Philadelphia driver interview, carried by ATruckDrivers.com
How the group got away
Police said the six men fled in several vehicles, including a gray Ford F-150 pickup truck and a gray Dodge Caravan minivan, taking the two loaded pallets with them. Police described two of the men: one stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall and wore all black; the second stood about 5 feet 6 inches, weighed about 180 pounds, and also wore dark or black clothing, FOX 29 and NBC10 reported. Southwest Detectives are leading the investigation, 6abc reported, and FOX 29 said anyone with information should contact the Philadelphia Police Department.
Source: FOX 29 Philadelphia; NBC10 Philadelphia; 6abc
A pattern Philadelphia truck drivers know well
This was not an isolated case. CBS Philadelphia reported that the crab theft came weeks after a separate cargo theft elsewhere in the city, in which masked thieves earlier this month made off with roughly five pallets of beef from a big rig in Northeast Philadelphia and left in a Jeep and a Ford F-150. Police have not said whether the two cases are linked. CBS Philadelphia also reported that, according to police, thieves often target drivers who sleep in their trucks while waiting for early-morning delivery appointments — exactly the situation Muriuki described — and local reporting notes that large cargo thefts of frozen food, including beef and ribs, have increased in Philadelphia in recent years.
Source: CBS Philadelphia
On the police account reported by CBS Philadelphia, cargo thieves in Philadelphia look for drivers sleeping in their cabs while waiting for early delivery appointments. In this case the driver was chased when he confronted the group and was not injured. The investigation is with Southwest Detectives; police ask anyone with information to contact the Philadelphia Police Department.
Why this matters for Punjabi truckers
A large share of Awaaz Punjab's readers in the United States drive trucks for a living, many of them on overnight Northeast lanes into Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York, where safe, legal overnight truck parking is scarce and drivers routinely end up sleeping on industrial streets like Island Avenue while waiting for a morning delivery slot. A 3,000-pound cargo loss — yaani about 1.36 tonnes of high-value seafood, 100 boxes in all — is the kind of theft that can cost a driver his job or an owner-operator his contract, which is why Muriuki told the men he did not want to lose his job before he ran. The case also shows the personal risk: he was outnumbered six to one in the dark, hours before dawn.
What happens next
The investigation remains ongoing with Southwest Detectives, WPHL reported, and police had reported no arrests and no injuries as of Tuesday's reporting. Detectives will be working from the vehicle descriptions — the gray Ford F-150 and gray Dodge Caravan among several vehicles — the descriptions of two of the men, and any surveillance video from the Island Avenue corridor. Whether this theft is connected to the earlier Northeast Philadelphia beef theft is an open question police have not answered. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Philadelphia Police Department, FOX 29 reported.