Mead Johnson suffers another infant formula theft

Consumer healthcare company Mead Johnson was hit by cargo thieves over the Thanksgiving holiday period in the USA, losing a full truckload (FTL) shipment of infant formula products.

The load was in transit from Indiana to Delaware, Ohio, and was taken from a public parking lot in Fortville near Indianapolis on November 23. The truck - operated by carrier Menke LLC - left the lot at around 11pm the same day according to the onboard GPS, and was discovered to be missing on November 24.

The last GPS signal received from the unit was in Elizabethtown, Kentucky in the small hours of November 25.

The cargo included 22 pallets of Enfamil products, including a mix of powdered infant formula and concentrated liquid infant formula products. Brand names taken in the haul include Enfamil Premium, Enfamil AR, Enfamil Prosobee, and Nutramigen, according to a Pharmaceutical Cargo Security Consortium alert. The value of the load is estimated at between $225,000 and $250,000.

Mead Johnson has been targeted by cargo thieves a number of times in the last few years. In August it lost an FTL of infant formula products estimated to be worth around half a million dollars in a raid in Michigan, but was able to recover the shipment intact thanks to an organised and rapid response by law enforcement.

That incident followed thefts of infant formula in both March 2011 (shipment worth $365,000) and October 2010 ($500,000).