A Texas precious-metals refiner's boxes kept arriving open and empty: tape cut, contents gone, lid closed like nothing happened. The packages came in from about 70 buying locations, and a single one could run to six figures.
Our claims adjuster noticed that the packages had shipped from all over the country and still ended up in the same place, the last sort facility. That put the thief at the one stop they all shared. Losses ran to hundreds of thousands of dollars a night. FedEx sent security, cameras, and decoy packages in the suspect trailers. The thieves left the decoys alone.
The client had been ready to switch every shipment to boxes with star-bit security screws, which would have added labor to every package, every day. Meanwhile every empty box was a claim, and every claim pushed the refiner's premium up.
Our president of operations suggested... glitter. The client ordered 20 pounds of it on Amazon that night and rigged 20 boxes to burst the second someone cut the tape, then mailed them from a partner location across town so they would route through the suspect facility. We called FedEx first, so nobody shut the place down, and FedEx picked the boxes up and fed them into the part of the facility where the theft was happening.
The next morning, security followed one man to the restroom and found his pockets full of stolen goods. On another camera, a man was sprinting out of a trailer covered in blue glitter. Two arrests. The thefts stopped.
If your claims keep landing on the same route or the same handoff, send us the data. We'll look for the pattern and help reduce your losses.
