Investigators with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office have recovered more than US$1.3 million worth of stolen cargo after locating two missing trailers at a truck yard near Chicago.
The operation was carried out by the Sheriff’s Police Organized Retail Crime Unit, which tracked down the trailers in Elk Grove Township. Authorities said the two shipments had been stolen in separate incidents in Alabama and Florida.
The investigation began after officers received information that a trailer loaded with around US$300,000 worth of copper wire, reported stolen in Pine Hill, Alabama, was transmitting its location near East Higgins Road. When investigators arrived at the truck yard, they found the trailer with the cargo still inside.
Authorities also discovered that the trailer was displaying Indiana licence plates that had previously been reported stolen in Wisconsin.
While speaking with investigators, the owner of the truck yard revealed that the same individual had delivered another trailer to the property the week before.
Detectives contacted the owner of that trailer and confirmed it had been reported stolen in Jacksonville, Florida, on 10 June. Inside, investigators found around US$1 million worth of data centre infrastructure equipment.
Together, the two trailers contained more than US$1.3 million in recovered cargo. Officials have not identified the companies that owned the shipments or revealed where the freight was originally headed.
The investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to identify the person who delivered the trailers and determine whether others were involved. No arrests have been announced, and investigators have not yet confirmed whether the two thefts are connected beyond the trailers being recovered at the same location.
