Nearly $1 Million in Trading Cards Stolen, and No Way to Find Them
On October 13, thieves broke into a FedEx truck parked outside the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) office in Santa Ana, California, and made off with two full pallets of trading cards, plus part of a third. The haul included rare Pokémon and sports cards that collectors had shipped in for grading. Police put the estimated loss at $963,000, and the final number could climb once the remaining boxes are counted. (ABC30)
For the collectors involved, these weren’t just assets. Some spent years building those collections. And right now, they have no way of knowing where their cards are.
Carrier Tracking Only Tells Half the Story
The path here was simple. A collector ships their memorabilia directly to the authenticator, the package rides on a carrier truck, and then it’s gone. Once that truck was broken into, there was nothing left to follow. That’s the problem with relying on a carrier’s tracking number. It shows the last place a package was scanned, not where it actually is. When a shipment is stolen between scans, the tracking history just stops, and the owner is left guessing.
This is where a GPS tracker earns its keep. Our trackers stay on all the time, so they keep reporting location whether or not anyone is scanning the package. If a shipment gets stolen, you can see exactly where it went and work with law enforcement to get it back.
The math is hard to ignore. A tracker costs a few hundred dollars. The cards in this case were worth close to a million. Dropping a device into the box before it ships means you always know where your property is, no matter what the carrier’s tracking history says.
A Tracker Inside the Box Changes Everything
Tracking doesn’t have to stay with the sender. With a shareable tracking link, the person or business on the other end can follow the shipment themselves. In a case like this one, the collector could have sent that link to the authenticator, and both sides would have seen the package’s live location the whole way there. That kind of visibility helps long before anything goes wrong. Everyone knows when the shipment is close, and if it stops somewhere it shouldn’t, someone notices right away.
The GPS trackers we use for vehicles, trailers, and equipment work just as well for:
If it’s worth protecting, it’s worth tracking.
Want to learn more?
There’s no one-size-fits-all tracker. The right device depends on what you’re shipping, how long it’ll be in transit, and how often you need location updates. Our team is happy to walk you through the options and help you pick the best fit.