Carriers and law enforcement are fighting cargo theft harder than ever, but it’s no time to relax. Shrewd thieves targeting unsuspecting owner-operators are stealing record amounts of freight and equipment.

Owner-operator Frank Burgwin left the engine running on his locked Freightliner FLD and rushed into the Earle, Ark., truck stop to grab a takeout hamburger. He planned to be back at his east Texas home that evening in October 1999.

But when he stepped out of the store, he felt his stomach tighten. His tractor and the flatbed with 48,000 pounds of aluminum had vanished.

Burgwin says he thought it might be a joke. “Then it hit me,” says Burgwin.

He and the off-duty Consolidated Freight driver who gave him a ride found the tractor that day off of I-40 near West Memphis, Ark., close to a truck stop. A trailer stolen from south Texas was hooked to his truck. Never recovered were the cargo and trailer, owned by Prime Inc., to whom he was leased.

Cargo theft has worsened since Burgwin’s incident more than a decade ago, with steady increases since 2005. The crime spiked 12 percent in one year to a record high in 2009.

The FBI estimates cargo theft losses range from $10 billion to $15 billion annually. Add indirect costs – such as law enforcement, loss of sales and revenue, costs to carriers and insurers – and the total is two to four times that. In addition, many thefts go unreported.