Lobster for the Holidays!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

While our nation's massive new secret police force, the Masked Marauders of ICE, has been busy - and relentless - in its terrifying pursuit of hotel maids and gardeners, real crime still runs rampant across the country.  This week it was reported that $400,000 in live lobsters had been stolen during transport from a cold storage facility in Massachusetts while enroute to Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota.

The theft was apparently pulled off when the company from Indiana that was hired to transport the lobsters was scammed into hiring an owner-operator (independent trucker) who was not an honest broker.  The company which hired the fraudster said they were victimized through scam emails and burner phones into thinking they were hiring a legitimate carrier and instead wound up with a guy who took off with their cargo.

Somewhere there was an abundance of fresh lobster for holiday celebrations this year!

While the situation was serious and does merit public attention and scorn, it did make for some pun fun in the press.  One news article talked about the need to "seas the day," while another declared the FBI was circling the crime scene like sharks.  (In reality the FBI was more likely focused on providing security to FBI Director Kash Patel's young girlfriend, or arranging transportation for her and her friends - but that is a whole other blog posting,). 

Another news story about the heist led with "Someone's going to need a ton of melted butter," and USA Today headlined the brazen theft as "FBI hopes to claw back $400K worth of frozen lobster meat."  (Note:  Some news reports listed the cargo as being "live," while others, such as USA Today described it as frozen "meat."). 

Puns aside, stolen cargo is a serious business in the United States of America.  The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and other industry sources state that the theft of cargo in the US costs American businesses between $15 billion and $35 billion annually.  The costs of crime, like the expenses associated with tariffs, are ultimately born by company employees through the loss of such things as salary increases and bonuses, and, of course, by American consumers through increased prices.

But hey, somebody had some bargain lobster for the holidays, and I never begrudge anyone a good meal!