On June 30, Wired magazine reported that Sheriff’s Office records show that trailers carrying millions of dollars’ worth of Tesla cars and home batteries have been stolen directly from the loading dock of the company’s Nevada factory at least 11 times since December.
“These types of cases are occurring at an increasing rate,” said Story County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sam Hatley, who has been investigating the Tesla cases.
Three men suspected of being involved in one of the thefts were arrested in January and charged with felony possession of stolen property. However, this broader wave of cargo thefts plaguing Tesla is still under investigation and has not been publicly reported before.
Hartley told WIRED that the cases documented in Sheriff's Office records are just the tip of the iceberg. Investigators are tracking a total of 17 suspected cargo thefts in Story County this year involving Tesla and other businesses. However, Hartley declined to disclose how many of them were targeted at Tesla. One of the suspected crimes against Tesla also involved the theft of battery recycling company Redwood Materials. Hartley added that the figures are likely an underestimate because companies are sometimes reluctant to disclose that their products have been stolen.
Tesla Nevada battery factory
Transportation industry researchers estimated last year that freight theft in the U.S. would roughly double from 2022 to 2024, with total annual losses now costing businesses nearly $18 million a day, which could also lead to higher prices for consumers. Electronic components have been a common target for theft, according to theft prevention consulting firm Verisk CargoNet.
Of particular concern to law enforcement and the trucking industry is the rise in so-called "strategic theft," which is what Tesla is suspected of experiencing. These modus operandi are different from thieves snatching animals from unattended trailers in public rest areas. Instead, organized crime groups have found ways to exploit gaps in Tesla's security procedures, including using fake IDs and exploiting the company's looser relationships with delivery truck drivers.
WIRED learned of the incidents by requesting emergency dispatch records from Story County. The county's Tesla battery factory employs about 12,000 people, making it by far the largest employer in the region. About 2% of the county's emergencies last year came from the 5.4 million-square-foot so-called "Gigafactory," which is operated by Tesla in partnership with Panasonic. However, a significant number of these calls appear to have been mistakenly dialed to 911.
According to the Sheriff's Office report, a Tesla deputy manager told investigators that the first few thefts were caused in part by a failure to follow basic safety procedures. Sheriff's Office records show the automaker has since stepped up its processes, including starting verifying drivers' identities at the factory gate. "It's definitely helped. Thefts are still happening, but not as frequently," Hartley said.
The first in a recent series of cases occurred in December and involved two trailers, each containing more than $475,000 worth of Powerwall 3 home energy storage battery systems, according to a Sheriff's Office report. The goods were allegedly removed from Tesla's factory by a suspicious logistics carrier. Law enforcement later found the trailers about 500 miles away in Southern California, but they were empty.
Tesla's security team later discovered that some Powerwalls were being sold online and notified law enforcement. According to investigators, these products cannot be activated once they are marked as stolen, so there is actually little profit in purchasing them.
In another case, an auto parts dealer in Northern California reported to Tesla and law enforcement that someone had tried to sell it suspected stolen car batteries at a discount, and investigators later confirmed that the batteries were indeed stolen goods.
Tesla reported another suspected theft in December and nine more in January. These include one on January 19 involving another trailer carrying 123 Powerwalls batteries. The shipment was originally destined for Tesla's factory in Hayward, California, but never arrived. The Sheriff's Office report said the company the tow truck and its driver belonged to were not licensed to operate across state lines. The report also revealed that a freight brokerage contracted to transport the trailer to an unqualified carrier.
Over the next four days, two more trailers were stolen, each carrying about $500,000 worth of Powerwalls. Investigators said in the report that both trailers were found through GPS location history, but one of them was empty when it was found. The other was found at a gas station 18 miles away from the Tesla factory with its cargo intact. Investigators installed a GPS tracking device on it, intending to wait for thieves who came to retrieve the vehicle, and informed Tesla of the location and plans. However, Tesla employees came to pick up the trailer, and were briefly stopped by police officers who did not know the situation. Hartley declined to comment on the "mistake."
As of press time, Tesla and Redwood Materials have not commented on this.