Seafood thieves in the United States had a field day before the year-end holidays, taking advantage of brisk business to pounce on unsuspecting victims. 

In Falmouth, Maine, 14 cages full of oysters worth $20,000 were stolen from an aquaculture site in Casco Bay before Thanksgiving on 22 November, ABC News reported, citing the Maine Marine Patrol.

In Taunton, Massachusetts, about 255 kilometers away, a load of crab disappeared after leaving the Lineage Logistics warehouse on 2 December, the broker who arranged the pickup told ABC News.

“The carrier we hired had impersonated a real carrier,” said Dylan Rexing, CEO of Rexing Companies, according to ABC News. “They had a spoof email address. They changed the name on the side of the truck. They had a fake certified driver’s license. It was a very sophisticated crime.”

Then, lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota was stolen from the same warehouse by another fraudulent trucking company on 12 December.

Meanwhile, thieves who preferred cash struck at a convenience store in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, on Christmas Eve. 

Security video of the 7-Eleven store in White Settlement showed a black SUV arriving at the parking lot at past 3 a.m. and two masked men in black outfits getting out of the car. 

One of the men was seen smashing the glass window of the unattended store with a mallet and dragging a cable connected to the SUV with a metal hook on one end, New York Post (NYP) reports. 

Inside the store, footage showed the burglar hooking the cable to the automated teller machine (ATM). 

The next clip showed the SUV driving off, ripping the ATM from its corner spot, smashing through shelves, and spilling snacks on the floor, NYP reports. The ATM then crashed through the glass window and landed on the parking lot pavement. 

The security camera outside the store recorded the SUV continuing to drag the cash dispenser around the gas station to break it open, with the machine hitting one parked car. 

Police later found the ATM in a nearby ditch, with the money still inside, which meant the thieves escaped empty-handed.