Excessively hungry or just plain greedy? Three men were caught red-handed unloading a whopping 1,600 pounds of beef they had stolen from a trailer in Northeast Philadelphia. Authorities pounced on these masked bandits as they were moving 25 boxes of beef from the trailer to their van on the 7300 block of Edmund Street in Tacony. The stolen beef had a hefty price tag of $7,000, making this theft no small fry.
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The nefarious trio, identified as Douglas Mathis, Jamir Scott, and Tariq Duncan, all residents of Philadelphia, were promptly nabbed by law enforcement officers from the Philadelphia police and Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. This incident is just the latest in a series of cargo thefts targeting frozen food stored in trailers.
The arrests are part of the expansive “Operation Beef Bandit”, a joint effort with the New Jersey State Police to crack down on food theft crimes. Recent reports reveal that similar break-ins have been plaguing the region, with earlier arrests of four Philly men on the New Jersey Turnpike being linked to multiple food theft incidents over the past few years.
Not even seafood was spared from the clutches of these thieves. In August, bold thieves made off with nearly 400 pounds of tuna from a refrigerated trailer truck at Samuels Seafood Co. Furthermore, a brazen heist involving six masked men at Seventh Street and Packer Avenue saw three pallets of seafood mysteriously disappearing.
With reports of stolen snow crab, beef, salmon, and bourbon circulating this year, it’s clear that these food heists have reached alarming levels. Mathis, Scott, and Duncan are facing severe charges of corrupt organizations, theft, and other related offenses. Their bail was set at a staggering $200,000 each following their arraignment on Tuesday.