Trucker chases off 10+ masked thieves with a bat during attempted meat heist

A truck driver chased off a group of masked thieves with a bat during an attempted meat heist in Philadelphia on Monday morning. 

The incident happened on November 24th at about 2:10 a.m. on Red Lion and Norcom roads in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

According to 6 ABC, truck driver Kurt Landry was asleep in his cab when he was woken up by his reefer making an unusual noise. 

“The reefer unit started going up and down, up and down, changing sounds. So that’s kind of unusual. And I felt the truck and trailer moving, so I pulled the curtain to look to see what was going on, and sure enough, there was four vehicles sitting back there, and a bunch of guys pulling stuff out of the trailer,” Landry said.

Landry says he then chased the group of 10-12 men away from his cargo with a bat, but the men still got away with about four pallets, with more of the load scattered across the parking lot. 

“They took off like cockroaches,” Landry recalled. 

Landry was scheduled to deliver the meat at Quaker Valley Foods at 5 a.m. after picking up the load at a Tyson Foods in Nebraska. Investigators have not yet determined the value of the stolen cargo, but the entire load was worth about $70,000.  Police are checking the area for surveillance footage in hopes to get a better description of the suspects, and say that just last week a load of port was stolen around the same area. 

“It’s not clear if it’s that same crew or not,” said Captain Ryan. “A great number of that crew are under indictment at this point, so that has to run its course.”

Anyone with information is urged to call the police department’s anonymous tipline at 215-686-TIPS.