California thieves stole 2 Nvidia-branded trailers from a warehouse. The only cargo inside was 40,000 pounds of sand

“The very apparent branding probably made them think there was very valuable equipment back there,” Lauren Kwan, PlusAI’s vice president of marketing, told The San Francisco Standard.

Why sand?

Sure, it’s fun to picture the looks on the thieves’ faces when they saw the 40,000-pound sandbox upon opening up the trailer doors, but why the heck would that be in a tech company’s trailer in the first place?

It turns out PlusAI uses sand to simulate real freight when conducting research and development on its autonomous vehicles.

The thieves seemingly had their own big rig tractors, which they used to move the trailers out of the Fremont facility. (Cabs normally used to pull the sand-filled trailers were reportedly parked in a different area and left untouched.)

Security footage showed the trailers being stolen, but it was a complete fluke that led to PlusAI finding them in the wild. The company’s vice president of legal reportedly received a text from a friend, along with a note of support, that showed the trailers parked about four miles away in Newark.

PlusAI sent a team out to confirm the trucks were still there, then called the police. No arrests have been made in this case so far.

Valuable cargo — usually

The thieves who stole the PlusAI trucks were likely lured by the branding for both the company and Nvidia on the trailers.