CargoNet received reports of more than 1,500 incidents of stolen commercial-vehicle cargo or equipment in the United States and Canada during 2015, the theft prevention and recovery network said.
Cargo theft accounted for 58% of the reports, or 881 incidents, said CargoNet, a division of Verisk Analytics.
That was up from 844 reports of cargo theft in 2014, the network said.
The remaining 619 reports involved stolen heavy commercial vehicles — a truck, trailer, chassis, container, box truck that does not contain cargo or identity theft of trucking companies, the company said.
“We can estimate the value of stolen cargo in all 881 incidents to be $175.3 million,” a statement form Jersey City, New Jersey-based CargoNet said.
Theft of food or beverages accounted for 28% of the cargo theft incidents, it said.
“This was significantly more than the next highest categories, electronics and household, each of which accounted for 13% of stolen items,” the statement said.
Also, the group received reports of 10 cargo thefts worth more than $1 million each.
California was the cargo crime capital, the group said, reporting 158 thefts and $18.7 million in losses.
Texas followed with 130 recorded theft incidents and $12.2 million in cargo stolen. Florida was next with 98 thefts, then Georgia with 97 and New Jersey with 80.
CargoNet said thefts in Tennessee rose each quarter last year but gave no figures.
Thieves were most active over weekends and on Monday evenings, CargoNet said.
Last year, 49% of all reported cargo thefts occurred between Friday, the most popular day at 21%, and Sunday.
The network said cargo theft also spiked briefly on Mondays with 16% of all cargo theft incidents.
“We took a closer look at our data, and it seems cargo theft groups prefer to steal Monday evening into Tuesday morning more than Sunday night into Monday morning,” the statement said.
The least amount of theft, 9%, occurred on Wednesdays.
