Incident: Rail Pilferage, Arrest, and Recovery  

Over the weekend, Overhaul enabled the arrest of one suspect and the recovery of cargo from a rail pilferage performed in New Mexico. The Overhaul GSOC and LE Connect team were already watching this shipment closely due to several real time indicators that this shipment was at

risk of pilferage.

On Saturday, April 13, the Overhaul GSOC alerted that a shipment of athletic footwear was being pilfered from its container on rail near Bluewater, NM.

Coordinating with the New Mexico State Police, BNSF rail police, and HSI, the Overhaul LE Connect team provided officers with the real time location and sensor data via the Risk Monitoring platform.

This data led law enforcement to Winslow, AZ where they were able to spot a box truck that had been seen near the theft by eyewitnesses. Law enforcement followed the suspect until positive identification was obtained, at which point the driver was pulled over and arrested, and the box truck was

opened and found to be loaded to the limit with product pilfered from the rail container.

It should be noted that while pilferage from rail is common, recoveries of cargo stolen from rail are rare. Cargo on rail is notoriously difficult to secure, requiring granular visibility to be able to identify stolen cargo before it arrives at destination. Even with this granular visibility, the lack of direct control of
the cargo while on rail coupled with the remote locations where these thefts often happen make recoveries near impossible. This is exemplified by the fact that the single suspect was able to take all the time he needed to load the box truck with merchandise, limited not by time, but by cargo capacity.

Overhaul recommends that shippers of targeted and high demand or high value products over rail employ as many visibility solutions as able. The ability to pinpoint the location and time of theft enables coordination and cooperation of the appropriate Law Enforcement entities and can be the crucial pieces of data that allow Law Enforcement to be successful.

Over rail, control of the cargo is far less than over the road, and so contextual intelligence, remote compliance monitoring, real time visibility, and an immediate escalation process with a path to effective law enforcement engagement are critical to recognizing and recovering stolen cargo.