Where’s the Meat? And the Truck and the Driver?
LOGANTON — It will be four weeks this Saturday since a trucker pulled out of the Nicholas Meat packing plant, carrying $110,000 worth of meat headed for a Wisconsin destination.
The truck,its driver and the truck’s contents haven’t been seen since and state police have called in the federal Homeland Security Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist in their continuing probe.
Authorities at this point have nothing new to report and investigating state trooper Christoper Soo would say little more than the probe continues into the theft of 40,000 pounds of meat. Police said at the time of the Nov. 21 incident that a trucker arrived at the Nicholas facility along Route 880 on the east side of Loganton, loaded the meat into the truck trailer and drove off but never showed up in Wisconsin. Police said the driver used a fake ID to get the delivery pickup.
The Nicholas firm subsequently issued a statement relative to the incident, what the company is calling “a theft of its product.” The release said the theft was carried out by an employee of a reputable trucking company that Nicholas Meat has used for years without incident: “Nicholas Meat relied on that trucking company to hire capable and honest employees. However the theft occurred when that third-party employee, a driver for the trucking company, utilized legitimate shipping documents for an obviously criminal purpose and intent.
The company responded to any hearsay about the incident, stating “Nicholas Meat wants to assure its customers and the community that its facility is secure. Indeed, the paperwork that accompanied the stolen delivery was for a legitimate customer of Nicholas Meat, and the vehicle only entered the property after clearing Nicholas Meat’s gatehouse and guard, with the appropriate tendering of paperwork.
The company reported the crime and said it intends to cooperate “in a vigorous prosecution of the perpetrator. Nicholas Meat is protected through insurance and other means for the loss, and absolutely no customer will suffer anything as a result of this crime.”
Online research by The Record showed that cargo theft is on the increase all across the world, countries most at risk identified as the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, South Africa and Russia. One source said the number of meat thefts has increased in correlation to the price of corn: as the corn price goes up, it raises the cost of raising cattle which in turn raises the costs of meat, therefore increasing its desirability by thieves. Many of the stories said organized crime has been linked to the meat thefts.
