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<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A truck driver who spoke exclusively with Action News said he snapped photos of thieves who police said stole $40,000 worth of meat from his truck Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
Police said three males broke into the back of the trailer just before 4 a.m. along the 2800 block of Southampton Road in Northeast Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
“We are scared because there are like four or five people here. It was three cars,” the truck driver said.<\/p>\n
The driver spoke only with Action News but did not want to be identified.<\/p>\n
“In my life, the first time this happened and it was shocking,” the driver said.<\/p>\n
He said he drove from Wisconsin and stopped in Northeast Philadelphia Monday night to sleep, like other truckers do in that area.<\/p>\n
But then he felt the truck shaking at around 3:45 a.m.<\/p>\n
“He interrupted the thefts, and they fled. Stole about five pallets of meat worth $40,000.” said Philadelphia police Capt. John Ryan of Northeast Detectives.<\/p>\n
Police are looking for three vehicles the suspects loaded the meat into, including two Ford Fusions and a black SUV.<\/p>\n
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“We believe it’s the same or similar groups involved. We’ve made arrests in the past,” Ryan said.<\/p>\n
These investigations have crossed state lines with the arrest of four Philadelphia men during what police called “Operation Beef Bandit.”<\/p>\n
The men were connected to several meat thefts<\/a> at New Jersey rest stops and in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n “We’ve had groups in Philly doing this probably since COVID, doing cargo thefts,” Ryan said.<\/p>\n