- A $240,000 copper shipment was recovered after an executive tracked its unauthorized route and alerted police.
- Police charged the driver with first-degree felony cargo theft after seizing the truck in Wichita Falls.
- The case underscores vulnerabilities in freight brokerage and targeting of high-value metal loads.
A Dallas executive helped thwart an alleged cargo theft by calling police as he raced down highways, tracking a $240,000 load of copper apparently rerouted to California instead of Illinois.
Fernando Boom, transportation director at Venture Metals, recently experienced his second cargo hijacking during his 16 months working for the scrap metals processor.
“They’re targeting loads that are high value and targeting lanes that are known to be copper corridors,” Boom said. “We supply raw materials to the mills, which melt it down and create whatever products they’re selling to their customers, and their customers are putting it into the items we use on a daily basis.”…