Thieves stole over $100 million in data-center cargo since June, NBC investigation finds

Trucks carrying data-center equipment are losing their cargo even with police escorts and location tracking. An NBC News investigation published October 26 describes organized thefts that have taken more than $100 million in data-center freight since June 2026, combining deception inside the shipping business with attacks on vehicles hired to protect valuable loads.

NBC identified nearly two dozen cargo-theft incidents since 2025, including cases in California, Texas and Utah. Its interviews with industry leaders, consultants and investigators describe a shift from opportunistic highway theft toward schemes that identify valuable shipments and manipulate who gets to collect them.

The escorts lost sight of the loads

In early June, a trailer carrying about $13 million in computer server equipment headed toward Fayetteville, Georgia, home to one of the country’s largest data-center developments. Two off-duty police officers were escorting it. An unmarked sedan struck their vehicle, forcing them to stop while the trailer continued out of sight. The trailer was later found without the equipment.

A shipment from California to Texas suffered a similar attack. An SUV struck its security escorts’ vehicle, and the trailer disappeared with server-rack components valued at roughly $10 million. An application was monitoring the cargo’s location, but its tracking coordinates had apparently been spoofed—made to show a false location. None of that equipment was recovered.

The accident was not an accident. The bad guys wanted that load, so they intentionally took out the escorts.

Gerardo Pachuca, private cargo-theft investigator, speaking to NBC News

The deception begins before pickup

The violent escort attacks were isolated examples within the larger pattern NBC documented. Other schemes begin online, before a truck reaches a loading dock. Ars Technica’s account of the investigation details a sequence that lets thieves pose as legitimate participants in the freight business:

• Thieves compromise freight brokers’ accounts on shipment-listing websites, then advertise fake loads to attract bids from real trucking companies.
• They send responding companies malicious links. Clicking can install software that gives criminals control of those accounts, allowing them to bid on real shipments.
• An unsuspecting driver may collect the cargo, or an accomplice may obtain the job with a fake license. The goods eventually reach a driver working with the thieves.

The targets extend beyond servers: fiber-optic cables, memory chips and copper wire are also taken. Experts told NBC that stolen data-center equipment does not usually surface on ordinary online marketplaces. Instead, shipments can be dismantled and sold as parts through gray markets to technology companies buying questionably sourced equipment.

Investigators said an overseas buyer is often lined up before a theft occurs, particularly in places where access to high-end U.S. technology may be restricted, including China. That describes the resale channel investigators see, rather than cargo stolen first and offered to whoever happens to buy it.

More escorts, but a call to slow down

Scott Cornell, chair of the supply-chain security organization TAPA Americas, argues that freight companies need to slow down to check drivers’ backgrounds. He told NBC that the schemes depend on drivers not being properly vetted. His proposed defense addresses who is trusted with a shipment, rather than only how it is guarded once moving.

States facing large thefts have formed specialized task forces to trace stolen shipments. Meanwhile, companies continue hiring escorts despite the attacks. Mike Duffy, co-founder and CEO of Southern California security company Solutions Group International, told NBC his business escorts hundreds of loads each month, with much of that work associated with data centers.