A high-value shipment of live lobsters destined for Costco never reached the Midwest, vanishing somewhere between Massachusetts and Illinois in what investigators believe was a calculated cargo theft.
According to People, the load—valued at nearly $400,000—was picked up in Taunton, Massachusetts, and scheduled for delivery to Costco warehouses in Illinois and Minnesota.
Instead, the shipment dropped off tracking systems and failed to arrive at its destination, triggering an investigation that has since drawn federal attention.
Dylan Rexing, CEO of Indiana-based logistics firm Rexing Companies, said that the disappearance appears consistent with organized theft operations that impersonate legitimate carriers.
“This is a huge issue across the country. It’s a huge impact to our business,” Rexing said, noting that losses of this scale ripple outward—affecting staffing decisions, employee bonuses, and ultimately consumer prices.
Authorities have confirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the missing shipment, with coordination underway among multiple field offices in the Midwest.
As of this writing, no suspects have been publicly identified, and neither Costco nor Rexing Companies has issued a formal statement.
The lobster theft highlights a broader rise in organized cargo crime across the U.S. Earlier this year, Homeland Security Investigations launched Operation Boiling Point, an initiative to dismantle organized theft groups targeting freight and retail supply chains.
Federal agencies estimate cargo theft drains between $15 billion and $35 billion from the U.S. economy annually, with seafood now joining electronics and pharmaceuticals as a prime target.
That demand isn’t surprising. Lobsters are biologically fascinating—and commercially valuable—creatures. They can live more than a century, have copper-based blue blood, regenerate lost limbs, and keep growing throughout their lives.
In the wild, they’re dark-colored and only turn red when cooked, a reaction caused by heat breaking down pigments in their shells. Once dismissed as “poor man’s food,” lobster has become a premium item, making shipments like this one especially attractive to theft rings.