A top executive at self-driving vehicle developer PlusAI received an unexpected congratulatory text message on a Thursday morning from an acquaintance who spotted two company trucks near their workplace in Newark, California.
Those vehicles were not supposed to be anywhere near that location, as company leadership believed the trailers were safely docked outside their warehouse just half a mile away. Local police soon arrived at the scene to help retrieve the two missing trailers, which were prominently marked with branding for both PlusAI and Nvidia, the world's most valuable corporation that partners with the firm on autonomous truck software.
Employees quickly provided law enforcement with an explanation as to why whoever hitched their own cabs to the cargo units and drove away might have abandoned them shortly after breaking in. Each trailer was loaded with approximately 20,000 pounds of heavy sand rather than valuable hardware or electronics.
Company spokesperson Lauren Kwan explained that simulated loads are routinely utilized inside their trailers to assist with research and development testing. The recovered units still contained all 40,000 pounds of sand completely intact.
The tech-enabled cabs where drivers sit and operate the vehicles remained parked safely inside the warehouse and were never taken during the incident, according to Kwan. The trailers themselves had been secured with manual hand locks that the perpetrators managed to break open.
Fremont Police Department spokesperson Amy Gee stated that the investigation into the incident remains active and no arrests have been made at this time.
Nvidia did not immediately provide a response to requests for comment regarding the situation.
This peculiar episode unfolds amid a broader surge in thefts targeting expensive computer hardware, particularly specialized chips and data center electronics. An investigative report earlier in August revealed two separate California incidents where thieves deliberately targeted security vehicles escorting high-value technology shipments to ensure safe delivery. Those targeted trucks were subsequently driven away to undisclosed locations, leaving millions of dollars in data center equipment unrecovered as of August.
Throughout the year, criminal groups have also targeted Tesla battery units alongside various cryptocurrency mining machines. While law enforcement authorities have successfully apprehended suspects in certain instances, many of these cargo crimes remain entirely unsolved.
Data compiled by risk assessment and analytics firm Verisk CargoNet indicates that enterprise-grade networking equipment, computer hardware, and various metals have emerged as some of the most frequent targets for cargo theft across the United States in recent months.
Fortunately, this particular cargo heist concluded with a positive outcome. The Fremont Police Department confirmed that by Thursday afternoon, both of the sand-filled trailers had been successfully returned to PlusAI.
