Brief
Thieves steal Nvidia‑branded trailers, find 40,000 lb of sand in Fremont
The stolen trailers belonged to autonomous‑trucking startup PlusAI and were later recovered with their sand cargo intact.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Thieves who targeted two Nvidia‑branded trailers at PlusAI's Fremont, California facility discovered the cargo was 40,000 pounds of sand rather than valuable chips, according to the New York Post.
Workers at PlusAI reported the missing trailers to police at about 9:30 a.m. on September 24, after the trailers were forced open and driven away with the thieves' own semis. Each trailer held roughly 20,000 lb of ballast sand used to simulate freight weight during autonomous‑driving tests.
A friend of a PlusAI employee spotted the stolen rigs parked near another company’s office in Newark and alerted a PlusAI executive, prompting the recovery of the sand later that afternoon. The trailers themselves were retrieved later that day.
Lauren Kwan, PlusAI’s vice president of marketing, explained that the sand is essential for the company’s testing program, allowing the autonomous trucks to carry simulated loads during test drives.
Key facts
- Two trailers marked with Nvidia logos were stolen from PlusAI's Fremont facility. (nypost.com)
- Each trailer contained about 20,000 lb of ballast sand, totaling 40,000 lb. (nypost.com)
- The theft was reported around 9:30 a.m. on September 24. (nypost.com)
- Both the sand and the trailers were recovered later that day. (nypost.com)
- Lauren Kwan, PlusAI’s VP of marketing, said the sand is used to simulate freight weight in testing. (nypost.com)
Sources
- [1] nypost.com — originally reported as “Thieves target tech shipment in California but find sinister surprise waiting for them”
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