The $400K Costco Lobster Heist That Occurred En Route To 2 Midwest States

Anyone who was hoping to pick up a lobster from Costco in Illinois or Minnesota soon may be out of luck. An audacious group of thieves recently hijacked a lobster shipment headed for Costcos in these two states, with the pricey crustaceans disappearing somewhere between their pickup in Massachusetts and their Midwest destinations.

According to the logistics company that handled the shipment, the theft appears to be highly organized. The crime mirrors a known pattern in the industry, with thieves using spoofed emails and phone numbers to impersonate legitimate links in the supply chain and make off with valuable cargo mid-transit. The FBI is investigating the heist, though no arrests have been made.

The Costco lobster heist is making headlines nationwide, and it's also making groceries more expensive. Cargo theft like this is estimated to cause a total of $15-35 billion in annual, industry-wide losses. When profit-based grocery businesses lose money from criminal activity, it makes the entire supply chain more expensive and drives up consumer prices.

Whoever is responsible for stealing $400,000 of lobster from Costco is far from the only one targeting grocery shipments. In the beginning of the year, $100,000 worth of eggs was stolen from a Pennsylvania truck, as egg prices reached incredible highs. Unfortunately, it seems the trail went cold shortly after the crime was discovered. No trace of the thieves or the eggs has been found.

In another incident, two men were arrested for stealing over $300,000 of rare wine from French Laundry, a high-end restaurant in California. The heist took place on Christmas in 2014, when the restaurant was closed, and when the culprits were arrested, police discovered their connection to a broader wine theft ring targeting restaurants.

In one of the most brazen food thefts in history, a group of criminals stole enough Parmesan Reggiano over two years to be worth $875,000. They mostly targeted independent producers with lax security. While those thieves were eventually caught, other top-dollar food cargoes remain lucrative targets, and crooks” creativity in taking them means there's no simple solution to stop the next lobster heist.