Cargo thieves have a new target.
Investigators with the Cook County Sheriff’s office in Illinois said last week they recovered a pair of trailers with $1.3 million worth of data center supplies at a Chicago-area truck yard.
Officials said the organized retail crime unit was tipped off about a trailer containing about $300,000 worth of copper wire spools, which had been reported stolen from Pine Hill, Alabama. Copper wiring is a key supply for building and connecting data centers.
After inspecting the trailer and finding the wire, investigators said the truck yard owner told them that the person who delivered that load had dropped off another load a week earlier.
That trailer also turned out to have been stolen — from Jacksonville, Florida — and contained $1 million worth of data center infrastructure equipment, the Sheriff’s office said.
Cargo theft is a problem that typically affects retailers, as criminals target supply chains to intercept products on their way to stores. The US Department of Homeland Security estimates that cargo thefts account for as much as $35 billion in losses a year.
Theft rings have also targeted metals such as platinum, palladium, and copper used in industrial applications.
The recent boom in data center construction presents a new opportunity for criminal groups that the National Retail Federation said last year continue to evolve in their targets and tactics.
