Truck driver chases masked meat theft suspects off with baseball bat in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A truck driver says he chased off masked men during a meat theft heist in Northeast Philadelphia.

Philadelphia police say they are looking for 10 to 12 masked men in four separate vehicles who made off with a large amount of frozen meat early Monday morning.

RELATED: Thousands of dollars worth of meat stolen from truck in NE Philadelphia

It happened around 2:10 a.m. on Red Lion and Norcom roads. Driver Kurt Landry said he was asleep when the thieves wearing masks broke into his trailer. He recalled waking up to the sound of noise.

"The reefer unit started going up and down, up and down, changing sounds. So that's kind of unusual. And I felt the truck and trailer moving, so I pulled the curtain to look to see what was going on, and sure enough, there was four vehicles sitting back there, and a bunch of guys pulling stuff out of the trailer," he said.

He said he then chased them off with a baseball bat, with the suspects leaving pieces of meat and boxes scattered across the parking lot.

"They took off like cockroaches," said Landry.

The masked suspects made off with four pallets.

Landry was scheduled to make a delivery at Quaker Valley Foods around 5 a.m. after driving from Tyson Foods in Nebraska.

RELATED: Masked thieves make off with several TVs in Northeast Philadelphia cargo heist

Northeast and South Philadelphia are known to be hot spots for this type of crime. Police say cargo thefts have more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, and since then, there have been more than a couple hundred a year.

"We've had a lot (of trailer thefts) last year," said Captain Jack Ryan of the Philadelphia Police Department, "and we worked on it, made a number of arrests. The issue had died down, and now it's starting to come back a little."

The thieves target long-haul truck drivers while they're parked overnight, often while the drivers are sleeping. They break in and take what they can get -- anything from TVs to liquor to crab legs, often making off with thousands of dollars' worth of cargo.

Meat seems to be the most common because of its value.

"Our company has us go through a lot of training and puts out notices and bulletins all the time of different hot spots we go to," said driver Jerry Clayton. "Philly is definitely one of the ones they mention a lot."

Truck drivers say they're aware of the dangers of hauling sought-after goods.

"We drive in teams, so if I go somewhere else, my team will be inside, so we don't lose anything yet," said truck driver Insan Rumdalirai of Eerie, Pa.

Clayon says he puts flashing lights on his dashboard when he's parked somewhere overnight.

"If criminals come by and they see the lights on, you know, then they see red and blue and they don't know what's going on. A lot of times, they don't even see what the red and blue lights are. They just see the lights and keep zipping on by," he said.

RELATED: 3 large pallets of seafood stolen from tractor-trailer in latest Philadelphia cargo theft

This summer, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office was part of a special task force that broke up several theft rings, which included food burglaries from semi-trucks.

Police are still adding up the total value of what was stolen, but the total truckload was worth $70,000.

Police are checking area surveillance for a better description of the suspects and their vehicles. So far, no injuries have been reported.

Police say a different semi-truck was broken into on Wednesday of last week. In that heist, thieves got away with about 600 pounds of pork worth an estimated $3,500.

"It's not clear if it's that same crew or not," said Captain Ryan. "A great number of that crew are under indictment at this point, so that has to run its course."

Anyone with information is asked to call the police department's anonymous tipline at 215-686-TIPS.