Thieves hunting valuable Nvidia hardware stole two branded trailers in California only to discover they jacked 20 tonnes of sand.
According to Wired, the trailers belonged to autonomous trucking outfit PlusAI and carried both PlusAI and Nvidia logos. Thieves took them from outside the company’s Fremont warehouse after breaking the hand locks securing them.
Whoever took them appears to have assumed the branding meant expensive computing hardware was inside. Given current AI chip prices, it was not the most imaginative piece of criminal market research. Instead, each trailer contained about 20,000lb of sand, giving the thieves roughly 40,000lb of ballast and absolutely no Blackwell accelerators.
PlusAI spokesperson Lauren Kwan said the company uses simulated loads in its trailers for research and development testing. The sand lets engineers reproduce the weight of real freight while developing autonomous driving systems. The company’s technology-packed truck cabs remained safely inside the warehouse. Only the trailers parked outside were taken.
The theft came to light after an acquaintance of a PlusAI executive spotted the trailers near their workplace in Newark, California and sent a congratulatory message about seeing the company’s vehicles nearby. Unfortunately, they were not supposed to be there.
Police recovered both trailers with the full 40,000lb of sand still inside. Fremont Police Department spokesperson Amy Gee said the case remained under investigation and no arrests had been made.
The incident comes as thieves increasingly target shipments of computer hardware, networking equipment and other data-centre kit because of their rising value. Wired reported separate California incidents in August in which thieves deliberately targeted vehicles escorting valuable technology shipments, then drove off with the trucks carrying the hardware.
