Santa's sled hits bad bounce in Goodfellas JFK job

From a truck to the sidewalks of New York

Jamaica, NY - Thieves suspected of an inside caper made off with $1.5 million worth of mini iPads at JFK's infamous Building 261 of “Goodfellas” fame.

A pair of hoods arrived in a white semi-tractor-trailer combination marked “CEVA” on its doors. They were caught loading two pallets – 3,600 of the red hot devices people are standing in line to buy. They boogied, leaving behind another three pallets that had just arrived from China at a freight forwarder's dock leased by Cargo Airport Services, according to New York's finest.

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The thieves pulled up at a roadside entrance to the building, which has less security than the other side, where the cargo terminal fronts on the taxiway tarmac adjacent to the runways, according to reports.

Cargo Airport employees who had been on an 11 p.m. dinner break arrived just in time to see the pair loading the pallets with a forklift owned by the outfit, and challenged their right to be in the security area, according to an exclusive report published in “The New York Post.”

The building is the scene of America's largest-ever heist of $5 million in cash and $900,000 in jewelry in a 1978 robbery of the Lufthansa terminal made famous in a Martin Scorsese film that chronicled the exploits of Jimmy Burke, an operative of the Brooklyn Luchese crime family. Don Luchese is said to have been the Cosa Nostra Godfather of Mario Puzo's book by the same name, which turned into a blockbuster movie series.

Mr.Burke got away with his plot after he whacked nearly everyone else who was involved in the record theft, which is estimated to have been worth $21 million today after an adjustment for inflation, according to the popular film, “Goodfellas.”(click here for a little traveling music)

A rat named Henry Hill(click), whom he originally befriended as a troubled Brooklyn youth, later gave he and his capo regime up in exchange for immunity to testify about other matters, according to a best selling true crime book by Nicholas Pileggi titled "Wise Guy."

Apple Computer press releases claim the company sold three million of the iPads in three days when they were released for sale earlier this month. The devices retail at prices starting at $329 at the Apple Store, and up to $429 for extended gigabytes of memory.

According to a report from CHUBB Business Insurance Loss Control Services, while worldwide theft of in-transit goods is "staggeringly high" and numbering in the billions, the U.S. share of such losses is moderate, though on the rise. Shippers and insurers experienced a 17 percent hike in pilferage losses during 2011, which amounted to an estimated $130,000,000 total loss for the year.

The iPad shipment loss is typical because the items are easy to transport, have a high value to size ratio, they are difficult to identify as stolen, and easy to sell at a high street value. The cargo insurance services industry recommends that shippers and receivers of international consignments make sure the carriers they select have a comprehensive policy of background checking employees for drugs and alcohol use, full employment records and criminal history, full disclosure of loss and pilferage experience, and a security profile that prevents thefts rather than encourages them.