Who's stealing plastic pallets around Houston?

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- They're in plain sight outside grocery stores, drug stores and shopping centers. Plastic pallets and crates that hold everything from beverages to bread, moved from trucks onto store shelves.

Apparently there's big money in plastic.

Houston retailers reported thefts of the pallets and cartons total $10 million a year. So they hired a private eye to find out where the plastic was going.

He began to follow the trail and it led to a warehouse just off the north freeway. Surveillance he says showed people bringing in the purloined plastic containers and selling them to the company.

In the back of the warehouse, he found a conveyor belt and a pair of shredding machines.

Thursday, HPD major offenders officers moved in, with assistance from homeland security. One of the owners was arrested and charged with felony theft.

We're told by HPD that the shredded plastic was shredded, then shipped to China where it was converted into plastic pellets. From there, it was sold to companies, probably some in the US and probably used to make more pallets and containers. And so the cycle goes.

The problem of pallet theft involves more than this one alleged operation. It is nationwide and international, but this business for now, is out of business.

And in case you think it's a minor crime, consider that the cartons cost retailers about $6. Pallets cost as much as $75.