A shipment of lobster worth about $400,000 was recently stolen while it was being trucked to Costco warehouses

A shipment of lobster worth about $400,000 was recently stolen while it was being trucked to Costco warehouses, in what authorities and the shipping company describe as a cargo-theft style heist.

What happened

• A logistics company called Rexing Companies had arranged transportation for a high‑value load of frozen (not live) lobster from Taunton, Massachusetts to Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota.​

• The load was picked up earlier in December, but the truck never arrived; the GPS tracking was reportedly disabled shortly after departure and the shipment vanished in transit.​​

How the thieves pulled it off

• The company’s president, Dylan Rexing, says he believes the culprit was a driver or carrier impersonating a legitimate trucking firm, using spoofed emails, burner phones, and fraudulent documents to get assigned the load.​

• This fits a broader pattern in U.S. cargo theft in which organized groups pose as approved carriers, pick up high‑value loads (like food, electronics, or pharmaceuticals), then quickly disappear and resell the goods through gray or black‑market channels.​

Who is investigating and what it means

• The FBI is reportedly investigating the lobster theft, but as of the latest reports there have been no public announcements of arrests or recovery of the seafood.​

• Rexing Companies has called the loss “significant” for a mid‑sized brokerage and warned that cargo theft of this kind ultimately raises costs that can trickle down to consumers through higher prices.​

If you are wondering about practical impacts, there is currently no indication that specific Costco locations are naming product shortages tied directly to this load, but the case is being cited as another example of rising organized cargo theft targeting food shipments.​