Police on snow crab leg heist in Philadelphia

All right, good afternoon. I'm Captain Joseph Busa, BUSA. I'm the commanding officer of Southwest Detectives. Earlier this morning, at approximately 3.34 a.m., we received an investigation into a cargo theft. That occurred at the 3400 block of Island Avenue within the 12th Police District. During that investigation, we discovered that around 1.54 a.m., the driver of that tractor trailer goes to that location, parks the tractor trailer to go to sleep while he awaits a delivery later that morning. Approximately 3.34 a.m., that driver is awakened by some movement in the back. He gets out. He goes to investigate that. At that time, he observes six individuals who he encountered with their faces covered stealing cases of snow crabs out the back of the trailer. He confronts those individuals. Those individuals then flee the area into multiple vehicles. One vehicle is being identified as a gray Ford F-150. Another vehicle is being described as a gray Dodge Caravan. It's estimated that approximately 3,000 pounds of snow crab legs were stolen, or excuse me, snow crabs were stolen, which consisted of 100 cases, 50 cases in each of those pallets. Southwest detectives responded to the scene, processed the scene. I have investigators out there currently canvassing the area for surveillance cameras. The fact that the driver had interactions with these individuals gives us a very specific timeline to where we can really focus our energy on where we want to look on these cameras in the surrounding areas. At this time, the investigation is very active, remains ongoing, and there have been no arrests made at this time. We urge the public, anybody with any information at all, please to contact the Philadelphia Police Department at 215-686-TIPS. or you can contact us right here at Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3183. And with that, I'll take any questions. Was the driver, did he just receive a delivery from one of the businesses there? Was he about to make one? He was about to make one when he parked his vehicle. It was a little early for his delivery for that location to open, so he parked his vehicle there to get some rest, and that's when these individuals came up and broke into the back of the trailer. Did the driver have a gun or anything? How did he get six people to scatter like that? At this point, no, he did not. He was not armed with a firearm. He just confronted the individuals, and all six individuals fled the location. The driver said that some of the people poured the other cell phone. Is that right? Right now, like I stated, we processed the scene. We did recover evidence. I'm not going to get into what we recovered, but we did process the scene. We recovered evidence, and the investigation remains ongoing. Is there any reason to believe this is connected to any of the high city scene in recent months in the Northeast? I know there's a ground beef situation recently. I mean, they're all concerning, obviously, but right now it's really too early to tell if it's connected to anything. We are in constant communication with the captain of Northeast Detectives, our major crimes, and as well as our federal partners. We're constantly communicating any time these types of situations come up, but right now it's way too early to tell if it's connected to anything else. Are you also looking at whether or not these individuals are maybe given inside information because how would they know to look for it's kind of an area where Right, so yes, we with these jobs, we run down every investigative lead possible, so that's definitely one of many leads that we will be running down. Were you able to identify the weight of the person? At this point all we have is six believed to be males, but their faces were covered. Like I said, we're out there, my investigators are out there now, canvassing the area for additional security cameras to hopefully get a better idea of who these individuals are. So, what is your advice for people that can buy these merchandise? Well, I stick to the investigation part of it. As far as that goes, anybody with any knowledge of the situation, it's not easy to hide 100 cases of snow crabs, so if anybody sees anything, please contact us, let us know, so we can investigate that further. Any advice for drivers? I mean, it seems like this is going on you know, all over Philadelphia, I mean, is there a way to be safe? Yeah, so, again, we encourage the drivers to to make sure that they're trying to park in designated areas, well-lit areas, not somewhere that's off the beaten path to make sure that it's, you know, if they're on a major highway, more chance that we could see these. Also, patrol is doing a very good job. They're out there. They're investigating these trailers parked to the side, and they're making sure that they're, they're doing their investigations as well. Yeah. So we're in constant communication with patrol. They're making sure, like I said, they patrol, especially the overnight hours, they'll go by and they'll check any tractor trailers that are parked, especially if they're running, they kind of know the individuals are getting rest. They'll make sure that they go, they might hang in the area, do their paperwork in that area to kind of help keep those individuals safe while they're, they're getting arrest. It looked like it was a secure lot. Was he out on the like the entry road, not in the lot, there's cameras and fence and everything around that location. Right. It was still, it was, it was accessible to the public to where he was at. Like I said, we're still trying to work. My investigators are out there now. We're still trying to gather the surveillance cameras and see where we go. This is very early in an investigation. We're about 12 hours in. The alert said 3601, but he started the seafood business there, but he was actually parked on the 3400 block. Correct. Okay. Do you know if he was trying to hit the business at 3601 or the seafood business? I don't know. That was his delivery. So he parked, yeah, so he parks, it's too early to make his delivery, so he parks to get some rest, then he's going to make the delivery whatever time his delivery was and then go on. What's the name of that store? What's the name of the store that he was going to deliver to? I believe it's MM Seafood. I'd have to check, to be honest with you. Yes, it is. Ocean Kingdom. Ocean Kingdom. So he's parked down the block because there's like a Dunkin' and stuff there. He's just chilling, sleeping, and then he's got to... Yeah, so that's common practice for the truck-to-trailer drivers, right? They've got to get their rest. They're on the road all night, but it's just unfortunate that he gets his rest. He's right by where he needs to be, and these individuals break into it and thankfully I mean the bigger thing is the snow crabs can be replaced thankfully this driver safe that's the most important thing do you know where the driver was driving from no I don't I don't not offhand my investigators have that information I don't have that readily available good thank you sir thank you really appreciate it