So, I'm writing a scene where four guys pull a semi-truck of tires over. I'm just not sure about the specific details of security measures. Like, would a semi-truck have a transponder or LoJack system? I'm trying to write the scene as authentic and believable as possible. Searching for references doesn't come up with much. Any insight would be helpful. I'm just looking for an insight into how people would actually go about robbing a semi-truck on a country road.
Big company modern trucks? Almost certainly. But some local guys in a small town, it would be believable that they have nada. Modern technology sucks for plotting, which is why I set everything in the 80s.
Do you want them to steal the truck or just rob it? If your guys are high-tech perhaps they could have something that can interfere with the security systems?
I had an idea that they used a GPS jammer, drive the truck to a spot where others empty it into another truck. Leave the tracker on and they bleach and torch the cab and ditch the truck. I'd guess modern era wise, they'd also have to destroy his phone. Just wondering if there's any other security measures a modern semi-truck for a rural distribution center. Like, trackers in the containers, or LoJack?
It's a container containing 220 tires. So they'd rob it, and then swap the contents over to another truck at a meetup.
Maybe @w. bogart can help out? Hope it's okay that I tag you, w. bogart. I think he is familiar with the trucking business. Edit: Thought occurred to me that this may be sensitive information. I get that you want authenticity, but perhaps this type of stuff is best imagined. Wouldn't want every yokel to know what and how the security of trucks are handled out and open on an internet forum. Trucks get robbed IRL sometimes. Edit two: What fits best for your story? If you want them to have an easy time, have little to no security on the truck. If you want them to have a hard time, put on trackers, real time cams, the lot. And have the team be good enough to deal with it all.
Ha, I understand. Too elaborate and complex runs the risk of actually giving out detailed, sensitive information on how to rob a truck. Kinda how they changed the recipe for meth in Breaking Bad to stop people from replicating it. Any information that can be told will help me greatly. Most likely, I'm going to probably go the route of there being a GPS track, a transponder, and they'll use some sort of jammer and switch over the truck's contents with another empty truck. Burn and bleach the cab. It's only a small rural town, and a tire warehouse so I can improvise with specifics.
Most of the time crime is simple, force the truck to pull over, hold the driver at gun point unload into another vehicle and vamoose , or switch the trailer onto a new tractor unit and vamoose ( the tracker is usually in the rig not the load) or even simpler break into the truck at a truck park while the driver is either absent or asleep there’s also what they call stand and deliver where the driver is involved ( sometimes the owner is too and he intends to make a fraudulent insurance claim) Either way you don’t get into gps jamming or need to torch/ bleach the cab because you never take the truck anywhere. incidentally burning vehicles attracts attention and is fundamentally dumb, if you do have to hijack a vehicle it’s better to wear gloves and then leave it on the wrong side of town with the keys in to encourage it to get stolen again
An apple airtag would be enough. Both tractors and trailers typically have satellite GPS tracking. What is the truck loaded with? It is not uncommon for loads to be valued over a million dollars in value. Loads are insured by the trucking company, or the driver in the case of an owner operator. Getting someone inside the shipping company, or port, so the crooks can find out what is being shipped when and where. Routes are not difficult to guess, since profit for the truck means keeping fuel costs down, so shortest and fastest route is easy to figure out. Though time of year will influence the routing. Instead of changing trailers, a place with a loading dock would be a better option. With a couple forklifts, the load can be cross docked in a half hour, and no worries about the tracking on the trailer. Hope that helps with the research.
Woah. Very insightful. Thanks so much for taking the time to help, mate. Most of the offing is off-scene but it feels better knowing the ins-and-outs. GPS tracking can be sorted with a jammer. Most likely I'll add in something about them swapping trailers. Disabling an airtag. The truck is basically hauling about 220 tires. Nothing too fancy at about 100 bucks a tire, and since it's from a rural warehouse, they're not making millions in the process. But all of this is really, really helpful because they'll be doing another two robberies somewhere down the line. Thanks so much, it's been hard finding information for obvious reasons.
Frankly if it was me I'd turn the rural warehouse over...probably be lower risk and higher reward than hijacking the truck. Go in in the middle of the night, shoot the alarm box full of expanding foam, cut the phone line to stop it autodialling, take the cctv cameras out with a suppressed .22 then just cut the lock and load everything out into your vehicles. That aside bear in mind that from a fence you get about 10% of market value, so that's 10 bucks a tire, $2200 for the load... not a lot when its split between three or four guys... you really want to be taking off a load of cigarettes, or TVs, or car parts something that's easier to move on and worth more Mate of mine used to run a scam with a local hooker, where she'd get busy with the driver in the cab and while he was engaged my mate and his mate would crop the lock on the trailer and sling whatever they could out of the back of the truck into his scrap chariot (transit van - think like an econoline)... they generally got about 5 grands worth on a job so about 500 quid from the fence...but they were grafting three or four night a week. Another guy I used to know used to do stand and deliver with fuel tankers... mostly diesel, he'd get about 100 notes to let his load be taken off by a crew who were hooked up with the owner of a filling station who'd take the fuel off their hands at half whole sale. They'd then dump the tanker unmolested where it could be recovered. Everyone was in on it including the owner of the tanker who was making insurance claims for the 'stolen' fuel and taking a backhander from the crew One of them's in Brixton on a ten stretch for doing a cash van, and the other one's in the ground after he O/D'd which tells us what we need to know about the unwisdom of that kind of life
That aside if there is a tracker in the load you need to find it and disable it, switching the cargo from one truck to another isnt going to help if the airtag or whatever is in the cargo... if it is an airtag they're reasonable easy to find because apple don't want skeazy bastards using them to track women and such so they make them scannable for with an iphone
Here was me thinking 220 worth of tires would be sold for market value cause I'm clueless. I'll have to change the contents to maybe cigarettes or flat-screen TVs. I wonder how much a fuel-tanker would be worth if they fence it. I wanted to write it as a stand-and-deliver scene. Bunch of young guys who are too chicken for banks, but actually are very good at robbing trucks to a professional level. Obviously some they stick up are in on it. I'm gonna have to figure out what's the best contents for the truck. I've written them as jamming the cab, and the trailer and then ditching the truck in a town over. Most the offloading is between chapters, but in passing I'd like to mention the fence took the load. You've helped loads, mate. The chapter feels a lot more grounded now with all this information.
There's a phrase I haven't heard since Adam Ant was a thing in the 80's. I suspect it's used a lot more in Britain than 'round these parts. So it basically means "Stop and give me your stuff." Good to know.
It was. I didn't know that until I looked it up. I assumed it was some kind of business practice or something.
TVs aren't worth anything. You might get $30 a pop for a huge, heavy box. Definitely not efficient. How large is the package? How heavy is it? How many can you realistically move? Have them rob something like designer clothes or shoes. Those fit in tiny boxes and are worth thousands in retail. The Sopranos did it all the time. Honestly, I think you're over thinking it. Robbing trucks is a classic literary device. Don't worry about the realism. Nothing in the age of cell phones and GPS is ever going to hold up to any kind of realism. Pick any robbery movie made before 2005 and it would be over in 3 minutes if modern technology was available. Just have them rob the truck and move on. Nobody is going to care.
A bit odd topic but the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was the truck robbery scene from 2001's The Fast and the Furious which was really unbelievable even for that time (but definitely cool!).
When I was thinking of trucks, I went straight to Goodfellas where they hit the guy to make it look believable, and casually just rob them and the guys are in on it.
To clarify, the mention of the airbag was for the crooks to use for tracking. The trailers themselves have satellite tracking built In. As has been pointed out by others the risk reward calculation for tires doesn't work. Unless you are talking Commercial tires, and then they have to be very specific types to go above a few hundred in value. You are placing the shipper in a small rural town as I understand it. That isn't uncommon as many small towns have a single large employer. The higher value loads I have seen coming out of those areas are from a meat processing plant, an auto parts plant, ice cream plants, to name a few. Tires are more regulated as they require special permits. They are classed as hazardous material in the states.
