Key Takeaways
- Verisk CargoNet analyzed 273 theft events that occurred during the Labor Day holiday periods from 2021 through 2025.
- California, Texas, and Illinois were the most common states for activity, with major freight hubs and population centers continuing to drive risk.
- Theft activity clustered on the days framing the holiday rather than on the holiday weekend itself, with Thursday, Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday accounting for 71% of all incidents.
- Verisk CargoNet warns that holiday risk now includes both traditional theft of unattended freight and evolving identity-based fraud involving compromised phone systems, carrier accounts, and compliance platforms.
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Sept. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the Labor Day weekend approaches, cargo theft remains a persistent and elevated threat to freight moving across the United States. Verisk (Nasdaq: VRSK), a leading data analytics and technology provider to the global insurance industry, released an analysis today from its CargoNet business on Labor Day cargo theft incidents over the past five years. The analysis found that theft activity has settled at a materially higher baseline than at the start of the period, positioning the 2026 holiday weekend as another period of potentially heightened exposure.
Verisk CargoNet’s review of incidents reported during the Thursday-before through Wednesday-after Labor Day shows sustained theft activity, concentrated exposure in major freight markets, and an expanding mix of traditional and identity-based theft methods.
Verisk CargoNet recorded 273 cargo theft incidents across the five-day Labor Day analysis periods from 2021 through 2025. The annual count rose from 33 incidents in 2021 to 56 in 2025, an increase of 70%, and reached a five-year high of 70 incidents in 2024.
The timing of theft within the holiday period underscores unique exposure risks. Friday was the single most active day with 55 incidents, followed by Tuesday with 49, Thursday with 46, and Wednesday with 44. Together, the four days surrounding the holiday weekend accounted for 194 of the 273 incidents, or 71% of the five-year total. The holiday weekend was comparatively quiet, with 24 incidents on Saturday, 28 on Sunday, and 27 on Labor Day Monday. The pattern is consistent with the growing share of cargo theft carried out through deceptive pickup and non-delivery schemes, which depend on live staff, active phone lines, and freight moving through normal business channels, conditions that largely disappear over a holiday weekend and return on either side of it.
The Labor Day threat is best understood as two overlapping risks. The first is physical exposure created when loaded freight sits at rest during closures or schedule disruptions. The second is verification exposure created when reduced staffing and time pressure make it easier for a criminal to impersonate a trusted carrier, alter shipment instructions, or insert fraudulent contact information into an otherwise legitimate transaction.
California, Texas, and Illinois accounted for 130 of the 273 incidents analyzed, or 48% of the five-year total. California led with 70 incidents, followed by Texas with 38 and Illinois with 22. This concentration is consistent with Verisk CargoNet's broader experience: theft activity clusters around dense freight networks, large consumer markets, intermodal infrastructure, and locations where stolen goods can be moved or resold quickly.
The commodity profile also reflects resale opportunity. Food and beverage shipments led with 49 incidents, followed by household goods with 27, electronics with 25, vehicles and accessories with 20, and metals with 11. These categories combine steady illicit-market demand with products that can often be broken down, redistributed, or sold through multiple channels.
Verisk CargoNet estimates total commodity value across the analysis at approximately $31.8 million.
Emerging Threat: Identity-Based Cargo Theft and Shipment Misdirection
Verisk CargoNet continues to observe organized groups combining traditional theft with technical deception. Criminals may compromise carrier accounts, software-based business phone systems, email accounts, or compliance-platform credentials so they can operate from inside channels that a broker or shipper normally considers trustworthy. This is more dangerous than simple spoofing because the fraudulent actor may possess authentic account access, recognizable contact details, and knowledge of active shipments.
The resulting theft may occur at tender, pickup, or after a legitimate carrier has taken possession. A criminal who changes a delivery address or contact after pickup can bypass controls that focus only on carrier selection.
In its July 4 holiday analysis, Verisk CargoNet estimated that cargo theft losses exceeded $359 million in the first six months of 2026 and that the average stolen commodity value had climbed to approximately $341,518. Incident counts alone no longer describe the full risk. Organized groups are demonstrating greater selectivity, pursuing high-value metals, enterprise technology components, and other freight that can produce an outsized return from a single successful theft.
Footnote: The Labor Day holiday analysis period consists of the Thursday before Labor Day through the Wednesday after Labor Day, 2021-2025.
About Verisk
Verisk (Nasdaq: VRSK) is a leading strategic data analytics and technology partner to the global insurance industry. It empowers clients to strengthen operating efficiency, improve underwriting and claims outcomes, combat fraud and make informed decisions about global risks, including climate change, catastrophic events, sustainability and political issues. Through advanced data analytics, software, scientific research and deep industry knowledge, Verisk helps build global resilience for individuals, communities and businesses. With teams across more than 20 countries, Verisk consistently earns certification by Great Place to Work. For more, visit Verisk.com and the Verisk Newsroom.
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