SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — Six men broke into a tractor-trailer in Southwest Philadelphia early Tuesday, October 27, and made off with 3,000 pounds of frozen snow crab. They chased the driver down the street when he stepped out to confront them.
The driver, Marty Muriuki of Webster, Massachusetts, called police around 4 a.m. from the area of Island Avenue. He had been sleeping in the cab when the shaking of the trailer woke him up. He said he had parked there after failing to find an overnight lot and thought the area was safe.
“As I was dreaming, I felt the shaking and I wake up and I think ‘uh oh, I have some company,'” Muriuki said. “And I look back and I saw four, five cars.”
He saw six men loading cases into a pickup truck. When he got out to confront them, one man offered to pay him, and another charged at him. “I told them, ‘Hey, stop! That’s enough! I don’t want to lose my job.’ And then I find out real quick I was in the wrong place,” Muriuki said. He ran down the street to the Residence Inn. “I was not trying to be a hero.”
The thieves took two pallets holding 50 boxes of crab that weighed about 30 pounds each. They left in several vehicles, including a gray Ford F-150 and a gray Dodge Caravan.
Police described two of the men. One stood about 5-foot-8 and wore all black. Another stood about 5-foot-6, weighed about 180 pounds, and also wore all black.
Muriuki said he has been driving for more than 30 years and this had never happened to him.
The investigation is ongoing with Southwest Detectives.
Interviews courtesy of local media.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
