Clogging Cargo Crime
October 16, 2024 8:21 PM Subscribe
Bedrock Sandals was about to launch their new Mountain Clog. The shipment arrived at US shores, but disappeared on its way to their Montana location. As they tried to find them, they discovered their little sandal company had become one of many targets of an international crime ring. A factual article that reads like a good mystery story.
Good Lord.
Decades ago I read a book on policing, which was old enough to refer to police call boxes as still being in regular active use. So you can see it was a very old book. It was written at the point when the police were transitioning to having radios in their cars and New York was descending into the 70's crime wave. And at that time I was quite surprised to discover that loan sharking, drug dealing, fencing, numbers, and prostitution rackets were none of them nearly as profitable as hijacking trucks.
Back then the reason given was that grabbing a truck load of cigarettes or booze or anything ended up being pretty much pure profit and extremely safe. Your hijacking team was a bunch of low end muscle, who were there to prove they were good foot soldiers and deserved regular work, or who owed you money. They took all the risk and and their wages didn't cost you anything but a tiny fraction of the value of the cargo, or else cost you nothing if they were paying off interest on a gambling debt.
You used informants in the warehouse and shipping company, most of whom were not actually paid, because they were drinking buddies who were taken to a bar that was buying stolen booze from you, and you got them drunk on hijacked booze. Back in the day organized crime got heavily involved in controlling the Longshoremen and the Teamsters Unions, and this is why.
The hijackers would take the driver's wallet and would copy down the data on it, most particularly his home address, before returning it, telling him that if he provided any useful information to the police their compatriots would pay a visit to his home and empty a gun at the inhabitants. So the cops never got any useful information "It was two or three guys and they were all wearing ski masks! I didn't see!" If an unarmed guy jumped on the running board and told you he was taking your cargo, a wise driver just raised his hands and smiled. The driver would have a cigarette or two while they were unloading, and then go find a pay phone to report the crime to his dispatcher and to the police, and he'd be back on the road with another load tomorrow, none the worse for taking the shakedown in stride.
So it seems that nothing has changed very much. It's been updated nicely over that last fifty years, but I'll bet the same thing happened when they were unloading at the East India Company docks, or when a trader named Ea-nāṣir was trying to still stay in business after the load of good quality copper he had ordered from his supplier vanished the moment it had hit the Mediterranean.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:02 AM on October 17 [14 favorites]
Decades ago I read a book on policing, which was old enough to refer to police call boxes as still being in regular active use. So you can see it was a very old book. It was written at the point when the police were transitioning to having radios in their cars and New York was descending into the 70's crime wave. And at that time I was quite surprised to discover that loan sharking, drug dealing, fencing, numbers, and prostitution rackets were none of them nearly as profitable as hijacking trucks.
Back then the reason given was that grabbing a truck load of cigarettes or booze or anything ended up being pretty much pure profit and extremely safe. Your hijacking team was a bunch of low end muscle, who were there to prove they were good foot soldiers and deserved regular work, or who owed you money. They took all the risk and and their wages didn't cost you anything but a tiny fraction of the value of the cargo, or else cost you nothing if they were paying off interest on a gambling debt.
You used informants in the warehouse and shipping company, most of whom were not actually paid, because they were drinking buddies who were taken to a bar that was buying stolen booze from you, and you got them drunk on hijacked booze. Back in the day organized crime got heavily involved in controlling the Longshoremen and the Teamsters Unions, and this is why.
The hijackers would take the driver's wallet and would copy down the data on it, most particularly his home address, before returning it, telling him that if he provided any useful information to the police their compatriots would pay a visit to his home and empty a gun at the inhabitants. So the cops never got any useful information "It was two or three guys and they were all wearing ski masks! I didn't see!" If an unarmed guy jumped on the running board and told you he was taking your cargo, a wise driver just raised his hands and smiled. The driver would have a cigarette or two while they were unloading, and then go find a pay phone to report the crime to his dispatcher and to the police, and he'd be back on the road with another load tomorrow, none the worse for taking the shakedown in stride.
So it seems that nothing has changed very much. It's been updated nicely over that last fifty years, but I'll bet the same thing happened when they were unloading at the East India Company docks, or when a trader named Ea-nāṣir was trying to still stay in business after the load of good quality copper he had ordered from his supplier vanished the moment it had hit the Mediterranean.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:02 AM on October 17 [14 favorites]
Before the days of shipping containers, shoe importers would split cargoes, one for the left shoe, one for the right, making it difficult to get a saleable pair.
posted by BWA at 5:11 AM on October 17 [11 favorites]
posted by BWA at 5:11 AM on October 17 [11 favorites]
“By the time I grew up there was $30 billion a year in cargo moving through Idlewild Airport, and believe me, we tried to steal every bit of it…”
posted by TedW at 8:16 AM on October 17 [2 favorites]
posted by TedW at 8:16 AM on October 17 [2 favorites]
Dammit, now I want a pair of these clogs.
posted by slogger at 8:26 AM on October 17 [2 favorites]
posted by slogger at 8:26 AM on October 17 [2 favorites]
My dad & brother work in freight forwarding, and I am very interested to ask them if they have stories like this.
They have shipped some amazing stuff over the years -- animal-marking ink, Caterpillar heavy machinery, live swine, containerloads of popcorn -- and I have to believe that in fifty years some went missing.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:41 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
They have shipped some amazing stuff over the years -- animal-marking ink, Caterpillar heavy machinery, live swine, containerloads of popcorn -- and I have to believe that in fifty years some went missing.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:41 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
Dammit, now I want a pair of these clogs.
I did look at those and think that they might be a solution for my summer shoe dilemmas.
posted by Frowner at 8:43 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
I did look at those and think that they might be a solution for my summer shoe dilemmas.
posted by Frowner at 8:43 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
I’m some startled that sales of stolen goods abroad can make $2 on the dollar. Am I reading that right that they mean they’re selling for more than the sticker price? More than the domestic sticker price? That’s how much exporting legally would cost?
Also, another case of how our, mmm, digital shadow of material reality is really hard to keep attached to the things. If every shoe had a unique RFID the company *could* track which of them it had legally sold, but that would be yet more paperwork and yet more surveillance.
“Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by.”
posted by clew at 9:33 AM on October 17
Also, another case of how our, mmm, digital shadow of material reality is really hard to keep attached to the things. If every shoe had a unique RFID the company *could* track which of them it had legally sold, but that would be yet more paperwork and yet more surveillance.
“Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by.”
posted by clew at 9:33 AM on October 17
Am I reading that right that they mean they’re selling for more than the sticker price?
If it's something with a lot of online hype, and they steal all of them from the legit sellers, then I suppose they can charge whatever the market will bear. There's plenty of stuff on Ebay with stooooopid prices
posted by wenestvedt at 9:45 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
If it's something with a lot of online hype, and they steal all of them from the legit sellers, then I suppose they can charge whatever the market will bear. There's plenty of stuff on Ebay with stooooopid prices
posted by wenestvedt at 9:45 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
OMG I was just about to order a pair of these! I love my current Bedrock sandals, but it's getting a bit too cold here for sandals, and I thought this would be perfect.
posted by dhruva at 9:48 AM on October 17
posted by dhruva at 9:48 AM on October 17
Before the days of shipping containers, shoe importers would split cargoes, one for the left shoe, one for the right, making it difficult to get a saleable pair.
That would explain this rather odd disclaimer that I sometimes see* printed on old shoe boxes:
* Okay, I've never seen this. It's a joke.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:32 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
That would explain this rather odd disclaimer that I sometimes see* printed on old shoe boxes:
If you purchased these shoes with two left feet, you should be aware that this is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the manufacturer, and neither the designer nor the manufacturer has received any payment for this product.
* Okay, I've never seen this. It's a joke.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:32 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
I have dealt a little with cargo/freight shipments and it's so opaque, especially in these times when we are accustomed to FedEx like scanning our packages at every single waypoint. We had a domestic freight pallet go missing and honestly the customer service we received wasn't much better than this company got from the scammers (minus, only barely, the extortion).
posted by muddgirl at 10:55 AM on October 17
posted by muddgirl at 10:55 AM on October 17
(I should finish the story, it did finally show up, two weeks late and damaged.)
posted by muddgirl at 10:56 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
posted by muddgirl at 10:56 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
Even with family in the business it's opaque!
I had eleven pallets of fancy Sun computer gear go AWOL a dozen years ago: the trucking company filed for Chapter 11 after the stuff left the vendor in California. My brother found them on a train, parked on a siding somewhere in...I think Indiana? I complained loudly and the reseller hired another trucking company to pick it all up and drive it the rest of the way to the east coast. It arrived a week or so later, swathed in plastic sheeting and tape with like three different truck companies' logos.
Very much a Prodigal Son greeting out there on the sidewalk, I tell you what.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:28 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
I had eleven pallets of fancy Sun computer gear go AWOL a dozen years ago: the trucking company filed for Chapter 11 after the stuff left the vendor in California. My brother found them on a train, parked on a siding somewhere in...I think Indiana? I complained loudly and the reseller hired another trucking company to pick it all up and drive it the rest of the way to the east coast. It arrived a week or so later, swathed in plastic sheeting and tape with like three different truck companies' logos.
Very much a Prodigal Son greeting out there on the sidewalk, I tell you what.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:28 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]
Have not read the article (yet! I will!) but I just want to put a good word in for Bedrock - I wear mine at least 5 hours a day, 6ish months a year, mostly for hiking over very rocky, relatively steep new england ground and they 1. last forever, at least 1.5 years until they need to be resoled and 2. they can be resoled and repaired. 3. made in the USA (except for these new clogs apparently, bummer). I have two pairs (one is a back up for if the first needs repairing), wear them in wet and dry conditions. They rule.
posted by youthenrage at 1:48 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]
posted by youthenrage at 1:48 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]
« Older well, you don't need sunscreen at the hospital | Dungeons & Dragons moves from the dining table... Newer »
posted by brainwane at 2:05 AM on October 17