Armed guards begin escorting delivery drivers to crime-ridden California

A company has begun hiring armed guards to escort its drivers in California.

The company, Core Mart, is among those offering extra security to its delivery drivers. When your parent company was contacted by NBC Bay Area in a statement, they refused to explain the reason for doing so.

According to local authorities, there was an increase in thefts from delivery trucks about two years ago, although there has been no other recent increase that would require such drastic action.

A delivery driver who works for a different company, Flavio Lopez, spoke to NBC Bay Area about his experience trying to deliver. While he says it hasn't been stolen, he's had a few run-ins and wishes he'd had an extra pair of eyes on his wares.

“Things you have to deal with downtown. It is what it is,” Lopez said.

Retired San Jose officer Darrell Cortez echoed similar sentiments, lamenting the apparent state of lawlessness that seems to be taking hold over American cities.

“Unfortunately, that's what society has become now with armed guards protecting the retailer's merchandise because there seems to be a sense of lawlessness in our society,” he said. “It is very unfortunate. You and I pay for it. The consumer pays it to the bottom line because the prices go up because the merchandise is going out the door and no one is stopping the bad guys because of the threat of violence.”

Cortez believes that if one company has decided to provide its drivers with armed escorts, it could mean that other companies will follow suit in the future.

January 2024, a couple of delivery truck thefts in Tennessee he targeted a FedEx and UPS truck. In both cases, groups of men dressed in black, including ski masks, stole a large number of packages from the trucks.

Long-haul truck driver Robert Kwasniewski detailed his own experience of being victimized while trying to stop at a gas station.

“I open the door to go out and I see a guy running from the back of my trailer with a box in his hands. I said, 'Man, what are you doing?'” he said, saying the incident made him suspicious of 'stop in Memphis.

“It's a shame and it's scary, but I'm not going through Memphis anymore and I'm not even going to stop,” the trucker vowed. “Which puts us as truck drivers in a bad position because coming west from Michigan, you run out of time right at the border, right before you get to Arkansas, you're going to run out of time.”

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for truth in a world of fake news has brought her to BizPac Review.

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