Amid unraveling economy, thieves nab tractor trailer filled with 21 tons of meat scraps

Saturday, September 10, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: thieves, meat products, health news

(NaturalNews) With real unemployment (U-6) hovering above 16 percent as of this writing (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.h...), and inflation on the rise in virtually every category except housing, Americans are becoming flat-out desperate. And this was once again illustrated by the recent case of an Indiana-bound tractor trailer, which was filled with more than 42,000 pounds of "meat scraps" allegedly worth about $100,000, that was stolen in Iowa.

Reports indicate that the tractor trailer, which belongs to Mid-Continent Trucking of Denison, Ia., had been parked at a trailer lot near Marshalltown for the weekend when it was nabbed. The driver had apparently properly locked his truck, according to Marshalltown Police Chief Jack McAllister, so whoever stole it was apparently well-educated in bypassing the truck's advanced locking mechanism.

The tractor trailer had been en route to Indianapolis where its load of meat scraps was set to be used for producing processed meat products. The vehicle and its 21-ton load, however, remain missing, as the truck was not equipped with a GPS tracking device. Such devices are often used on newer tractor trailers to monitor shipments.

Theft of tractor trailers filled with valuable goods is nothing new -- as we reported back in April, thieves had stolen eight tractor trailers filled with $300,000 in food and meat products (https://www.naturalnews.com/032109_food_costs...). Such thefts, however, particularly those involving food, are becoming increasingly more frequent as the US economy unravels, and the dollar becomes perpetually more worthless.

Food thefts of this nature are not limited to the US, though. A tractor trailer was recently stolen in Quebec, Can., that contained about $150,000 worth of cheese. According to a report in Times & Transcript, the truck has since been recovered. But authorities there, just like those in the US, say they have witnessed a significant increase in truck and trailer theft throughout the past several months (http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/front/...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.kcci.com/r/29110276/detail.html