Thieves target tech shipment in California but find sinister surprise waiting for them

Thieves who apparently saw Nvidia logos and smelled a big payday at a California warehouse got a rude surprise after hauling away two trailers that contained no valuable computer chips or electronics, just 40,000 pounds of sand.

The trailers belonged to autonomous trucking startup PlusAI and were stored at the company’s Fremont facility, where they were being used for testing.

The Nvidia branding came from PlusAI’s partnership with the technology company on self-driving systems, but the cargo inside was decidedly low tech.

Each trailer was loaded with 20,000 pounds of ballast sand, which PlusAI uses to simulate the weight of heavy freight during test drives.

The thieves nonetheless forced open the trailer locks, detached the rigs and hauled them away using their own semis.

Workers discovered the theft Thursday morning and reported the missing trailers to police at around 9:30 a.m. Sept. 24, The San Francisco Standard reported.

The strange caper was uncovered in an even stranger way when a friend of a PlusAI employee spotted two of the trailers parked near another company’s office in nearby Newark.

Apparently unaware that the trailers had been stolen, the person sent a casual message to a PlusAI executive, Wired reported.

“I have been proud of you for your adventure and success at PlusAI. Just saw two of your trucks near my work place! :)”

The trailers were supposed to be outside a warehouse roughly half a mile away, but by the time they were found, the cargo had been dumped near the other company’s office.

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PlusAI eventually recovered all 40,000 pounds of sand, while the trailers themselves were recovered later that afternoon in Newark.

Lauren Kwan, PlusAI’s vice president of marketing, said the sand serves a very specific purpose in the company’s testing program, allowing the trailers to carry simulated weight during test drives. The stolen trailers were part of that operation when they were taken.

The Nvidia logos may have made the trailers look like tempting targets, but the thieves apparently missed the more valuable equipment sitting right inside the same Fremont facility.

The high tech autonomous truck cabs were left behind in the warehouse.

By the end of the bizarre theft, PlusAI had its trailers and sand back, while the would-be thieves had disappeared without being caught.