‘It’s an epidemic now!’: Tesla batteries keep getting stolen; here’s what’s happening

A wave of cargo thefts targeting Tesla battery shipments has raised alarm among law enforcement in Nevada, with investigators saying that the thefts are driven by increasingly sophisticated criminal networks exploiting weaknesses in freight logistics.

“It’s an epidemic right now,” Storey County Sheriff's Detective Sam Hatley, who is leading the investigations, said, as mentioned in a report in Wired. He added that authorities arrested three men in January in connection with one of the thefts and charged them with felony possession of stolen property. However, he said the broader series of cargo thefts involving Tesla remains under investigation, the report mentioned.

According to Hatley, investigators are tracking 17 alleged cargo thefts this year involving Tesla and other businesses in Storey County, though he declined to specify how many involved the electric vehicle maker. One alleged theft operation also targeted battery recycler Redwood Materials. He added that the figures may understate the true scale of the problem because companies do not always report stolen shipments.

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The incidents come amid a broader surge in cargo thefts across the United States. 

Law enforcement officials are particularly concerned by the rise of so-called strategic thefts, in which organised groups exploit weaknesses in supply chain security rather than stealing unattended trailers. Investigators say the Tesla cases allegedly involved fake identification documents and gaps in procedures involving trucking companies transporting the manufacturer's products.

The thefts occurred in Storey County, home to Tesla's 5.4-million-square-foot Gigafactory operated with Panasonic, where an estimated 12,000 people work. Sheriff's records indicate a Tesla associate manager told investigators that some of the initial thefts resulted from failures to follow basic security procedures. Since then, the company has tightened its protocols, including verifying drivers' identities at the factory gate.

"It’s definitely helping," Hatley said, adding that thefts are still occurring "but not as prolifically."

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The first recent incident occurred in December, when two trailers carrying more than $475,000 worth of Powerwall 3 residential battery systems were allegedly taken from a Tesla property by a fraudulent logistics carrier. Another December case involved allegedly stolen Tesla car batteries that were reportedly offered at a discount to an auto parts dealer in Northern California, who alerted both Tesla and law enforcement. Tesla reported one additional alleged theft in December and nine more in January. One January 19 incident involved a trailer carrying 123 Powerwalls that was bound for a Tesla facility in Hayward, California, but never arrived. 

Over the following days, two more trailers, each carrying about $500,000 worth of Powerwalls, were stolen. In another case, investigators placed a GPS tracker on a recovered trailer in an attempt to catch suspects returning for it, though Tesla employees retrieved it before the planned operation could unfold. Two additional trailers stolen the following week were quickly located because their built-in GPS trackers remained active.