Cargo Thieves Recover $1.3M in Data Center Supplies

Cook County Sheriff's Office investigators recovered two stolen trailers containing about $300,000 in copper wire spools and approximately $1 million in data center infrastructure equipment at a truck yard outside Chicago. The copper-carrying trailer was reported stolen from Pine Hill, Alabama, and the equipment-filled trailer from Jacksonville, Florida. Cargo theft can account for up to $35 billion in annual losses, according to Department of Homeland Security estimates.

Industry context: For AI and data-center teams, theft of physical infrastructure raises delivery, timeline, and cost risk for deployments and construction projects. Investigators with the Cook County Sheriff's Office recovered two stolen trailers containing about $300,000 in copper wire spools and approximately $1 million in data center infrastructure equipment at a truck yard outside Chicago, according to reporting by FreightWaves and Business Insider. The trailer with the copper was reported stolen from Pine Hill, Alabama , and the equipment-filled trailer was reported stolen from Jacksonville, Florida , per those sources and the sheriff's office. FreightWaves reports the copper-carrying trailer displayed Indiana plates that had been reported stolen in Wisconsin, and Business Insider cites Department of Homeland Security estimates that cargo theft can account for up to $35 billion in annual losses.