Region 1 News
Region 1a Director:  Gary King, Tyler Police Department
Region 1b Director:  Ivette Haley, Fort Worth Police Department

Submitted by I.V. Haley

Detective I. V. Haley of the Fort Worth PD (TX) Auto Theft Section had begun to suspect that Fort Worth was being targeted by cargo thieves.  She set up a database to help her identify a possible rising trend.  She also obtained research from two transportation-related companies:  FreightWatch International and Supply Chain Integrity, both of which are Texas-based companies.   

It is official.  The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is among the top 5 cargo theft hot spots nationally.  FreightWatch and Supply Chain Integrity track cargo theft (either on a trailer or a warehouse), but do not track the separate, but related trend, of stealing tractor trucks and empty trailers to carry the cargo to and from their hiding places.   

As almost all of the trailers were recovered in either southwest Dallas or halfway between the two cities, Detective Haley suspected that the thieves had a warehouse in that area.  The first break occurred while further researching the theft of a load of Heineken beer the month before.  She found out that a Freightliner truck stolen from Grand Prairie had been found hooked to the recovered trailer.  When she contacted the company in Grand Prairie, they advised the truck had a covert GPS tracking device on it.  It appears the thieves stole the tractor the night before the recovery and had gone straight to Duncanville, TX, which is just immediately southwest of Dallas.  The thieves only had it for approximately 2 hours and 13 minutes.  That meant they stole that tractor specifically to pick up Fort Worth’s now empty trailer in order to dump it far from their warehouse.  Information from a second report clinched the deal.  Detective Haley also found that none of the offenses or recoveries, however, were actually occurring in Duncanville.  

It appeared apparent to Detective Haley that proactive measures needed to be taken.  After consulting with Sergeant Clay Hays, Detective Haley prepared and executed Operation Payload, which targeted Fort Worth’s hot spot.  A plea for assistance went out to the member companies of the Southwest Transportation and Security Council.  They generously provided the manpower, equipment and bait freight to deploy in the targeted area.  Assisted GPS tracking devices provided by FreightWatch International were embedded in the bait freight and trailers, and an electronic “fence”, called a geofence, was also set around the suspected warehouse area in Duncanville.  Various area law enforcement agencies also contributed manpower.  Detective Haley also shared the possible existence of a suspect warehouse in Duncanville with the various agencies assisting and with Duncanville PD.   

Operation Payload ran 24/7 for 11 days covering the last three weekends in February.  Unfortunately, the thieves did not strike in that particular area of Fort Worth.  The thieves struck instead in Dallas.  The next weekend on the morning of March 8, 2009, the thieves stole a trailer load of computer electronics, which unbeknownst to them had an identical tracking device embedded in the freight.  This device was also provided by FreightWatch International.  Upon receiving notification of the theft, FreightWatch monitoring units in Austin contacted Duncanville PD, providing police with a description of the stolen trailer and its cargo, and directed patrol officers to the area identified by their tracking device.   

Duncanville officers then located the stolen trailer backed into a recessed dock of an automotive shop in the 1100 block of Explorer Dr.  This block was in the suspected target area identified earlier by Detective Haley.  While waiting for backup, which was nearby to arrive, the first officer on the scene pulled over nearby and pretended to be catching up on paperwork.  The suspect driver, who we’ll call Bubba, approached and asked if the officer needed anything.  Bubba then disappeared into the building.  A nearby citizen notified the officer that he just saw Bubba run off behind the building.   

The officer immediately put out the alert and the officers entered the warehouse.  They found and arrested three subjects in the process of unloading the pallets of electronic equipment from the recovered trailer.  Duncanville Detective Chad Berger obtained a search warrant for the automotive shop and also found that the Freightliner attached to the partially unloaded recovered trailer had been freshly stolen.  The owners did not yet know it was missing.  One of the suspects who we’ll call Bob, turned out to be the owner of the automotive shop.  Turns out he had a second warehouse in southwest Dallas close to where the freshly stolen Freightliner had been taken from. 

That investigation is continuing and it is hoped that links can be obtained to directly connect Bob and his accomplices to various offenses in the Metroplex.  One thing is sure – trailer and tractor thefts have dropped in Fort Worth since March 8.