Pallet Theft | Stolen Pallets

“They’re just pallets.”

Time and again, newspapers report on stolen transport goods, primarily taken from warehouses and trucks; each year, property crimes cost German logistics companies around 8.5 billion euros. Although the damage caused by stolen Euro pallets alone is not quite as high, companies in the forwarding and logistics sector—as well as their customers—still suffer steady losses amounting to several million euros. The troubling reality: unlike cargo theft, pallet theft is most often committed by internal employees who sell the pallets to third parties for illegal side income. External perpetrators do exist, especially with the growing trend of building furniture from used Euro pallets, but they are the exception.

 

According to the experience of our detectives in Munich, many offenders are not even fully aware that they are committing a criminal act, let alone one that goes beyond a so-called minor offense. Others, however, act with full awareness and therefore proceed with particular caution. In both cases, our economic detective agency in Munich provides court-admissible evidence to identify and convict offenders: +49 89 7007 4378-0.

“Everyone does it.”

Frequently, regular truck cargo is secured with pallets to prevent it from shifting or falling, and the number of “securing pallets” is often not recorded precisely, as a convicted truck driver from Delmenhorst stated to the Weser Kurier as the reason for his thefts: “Almost everybody does it. In this industry, it is routine. Drivers who offer pallets are welcomed with open arms by the trade.” He said he got the tip from a colleague: freight companies make it easy for thieves because they often lose track of the actual pallet inventory.

 

Nevertheless, the Delmenhorst man was caught when the police, after initial suspicions from the freight company, checked him and found money from the last handover in his wallet. The freight company suffered damage estimated at 50,000 euros, the compensation for which had to be negotiated with the thief and two other defendants. The driver received only a one-year suspended sentence and an order to pay 1,200 euros to the state treasury. The claim that “everyone” does it had once caused parts of the industry to panic, while for experienced investigators like our economic detectives in Munich it was nothing new, just as the industry already familiar media “revelation” that the American NSA has access to German wiretapping networks was nothing new.

The Largest Known Damage to Date from Pallet Theft in Ludwigshafen Amounted to Millions

While thefts of euro pallets often cause costs in the tens of thousands of euros – including in the operations of our private detectives in Munich – it is rare for damage amounts to reach the millions. Nevertheless, between 2008 and 2010, the warehouse manager of the chemical company BASF regularly stole wooden pallets from the company’s plants, resold them to third parties, and thereby earned a fortune in addition to his regular salary. The roughly 300,000 brand-new wooden pallets stolen from the Ludwigshafen plant correspond to about 700 truckloads and, according to the freight company, caused damage of more than two million euros. The employee, who confessed, was dismissed without notice; the workplaces of two other employees were also searched, and three employees of an outside company as well as 16 other external persons were barred from the plant.

 

Ultimately, however, the charges were brought only against six offenders, who had to answer in court in Frankenthal (Palatinate) for organized theft and handling stolen goods. Co-defendants alongside the BASF warehouse manager, who orchestrated the thousandfold theft by issuing false papers, included two truck drivers, two fruit merchants who resold the pallets after delivery by the truck drivers, and a freight dispatcher. In a smaller hearing, which our detective agency in Munich followed with interest, all defendants had already been sentenced to suspended terms; in the end, the head of the theft ring was sentenced to three years in prison for aggravated theft, as was the fruit merchant, whose brother got away with a one-year-and-nine-month suspended sentence and a fine of several thousand euros. One of the truck drivers received seven months suspended, while the sentences of the two remaining defendants were still pending; in total, BASF had already recovered 380,000 euros in damages.

Protection Against Damage from Pallet Theft with the Help of Experienced Detectives in Munich

While in Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, and Stuttgart some freight companies have already joined forces to engage detective agencies for the regular monitoring of deliveries, and similar efforts also exist in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Hesse, such associations are not yet known in Bavaria, although they are recommended by our economic detective agency from Munich. If irregularities occur in the work processes of drivers and warehouse employees, they are checked, and in the event of discrepancies, clients may request that they be invited to conversations with trained detective staff in order to possibly secure even a notarized acknowledgment of debt. If the suspicions are confirmed, the employees are generally dismissed without notice, as in the case of the BASF employee, and may even face legal proceedings – depending on the circumstances and mutual out-of-court cooperation. The success of this approach is reflected in a significant decline in thefts and a greater awareness of wrongdoing among freight company employees, as stated by a managing partner of the Bremen Freight Forwarders Association. Even though only an absolute minority of employed warehouse workers and truck drivers are involved in euro pallet theft, it is nevertheless important for workflow and the protection of company assets to separate oneself from exactly this minority.

 

The estimated monthly loss of 5,000–25,000 euros per freight company shows only the average damage sums each firm must expect when using pallets for its cargo. There are no limits to the thieves’ creativity, whether it is the already mentioned theft of “leftover” pallets or more sophisticated methods such as reloading individual pallets and thereby embezzling them at the customer’s site, exchanging defective pallets in the warehouse for new ones, relabeling new euro pallets as defective, forging pallet slips, and so on. Our detective team from Munich works against these and any other type of theft. We catch offenders in the act and provide you with court-admissible evidence that can lead to the conviction of the suspects or to an out-of-court settlement favorable to you: info@aaden-detektive-muenchen.de.

Affected by Theft or Embezzlement? Our Detective Agency in Munich Can Help

Has your company become a victim of theft and or embezzlement? Then do not hesitate to contact our experienced economic investigators in Munich. Our team is available to assist you with surveillance, evidence gathering, company infiltration, cover-story development, and other offender investigations. Contact us free of charge at the following number: +49 89 7007 4378-0.

Aaden Detective Agency Munich

Schellingstraße 109a

D-80798 München | Munich

Tel.: +49 89 7007 4378-0

Fax: +49 89 7007 4378-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-muenchen.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-muenchen.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824