Newsletter
Yu-Gi-Gone!
Cargo thieves are increasingly targeting high-value goods, and trading cards are becoming their latest prize.
Nebojsa Lindic, Paul Jaroslawski, Ari Levy · October 21, 2026 · 7 min read
Happy Hump Day. Cargo thieves are going after expensive, easy-to-resell goods, and trading cards are now on their radar. A recent $963,000 heist involving a FedEx truck is just the latest example.
Plus:
Spot Rates Hold Firm As Truck Supply Shrinks
New Mexico Jury Hands Down $47M Verdict
New York Busts 16 in Staged Truck-Crash Ring
💡 QUESTION OF THE DAY:
U.S. trailer orders surged ___% year over year in September.
🍳 WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN FREIGHT
📈 Spot Rates Hold Firm As Truck Supply Shrinks. Spot freight rates stayed roughly flat last week even as load volumes softened, DAT and Truckstop reported, because truck postings are running 21% to 27% below year-ago levels. That capacity squeeze has pushed linehaul rates roughly a third above last year’s, with dry van up 35%, refrigerated up 33%, and flatbed up 29%. DAT analyst Dean Croke said flatbed pricing is running 26% above its nine-year seasonal average, well outside the historical range for this point in the year. DAT’s national averages: $3.09 a mile for dry van, $3.66 for refrigerated, and $3.64 for flatbed, all down slightly week over week as falling diesel prices trimmed fuel surcharges.
⚖️ New Mexico Jury Hands Down $47M Verdict. A New Mexico jury awarded $47 million to Austin Drewry Jackson and his mother after a 2022 collision with a Pilot Thomas Logistics tanker truck near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Jackson, then 21, suffered severe brain and spinal injuries, and the defense's first settlement offer was $100,000. "That offer did not come close to acknowledging the harm Austin suffered or the care he will need," said James Tawney, the family's attorney. The verdict lands as a U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform study found the median trucking verdict nearly quadrupled, from $760,000 in 2023 to $3 million in 2026.
🚨 New York Busts 16 in Staged Truck-Crash Ring. New York state investigators arrested 16 people accused of staging crashes and faking injuries to collect nearly $500,000 from insurers, in one of the first major enforcement actions since Gov. Kathy Hochul made auto insurance fraud a priority. In the Bronx, investigators say a group deliberately sideswiped a tractor-trailer on the Cross Bronx Expressway and staged a separate collision that generated more than $154,000 in medical bills. New York insurers reported 43,811 suspected motor-vehicle fraud incidents in 2025, and Hochul's office estimates staged crashes add as much as $300 a year to the average driver's premium.
PRESENTED BY GOODSHIP
GoodShip brings together pricing, bid history, contract management, and analytics into a single system, giving teams the ability to evaluate opportunities, align around the right lanes, and orchestrate pricing decisions across their network with confidence.
With Laney, GoodShip’s AI Transportation Analyst, teams can ask questions about their operations and get clear, actionable answers in seconds through a conversational interface, making it easier than ever to understand what’s happening across the network and where to improve.
The result: faster RFP responses, smarter decisions, stronger margins, and a more scalable brokerage.
The Great Trading Card Heist
Written with contributions from Ari Levy
Thieves broke into a FedEx truck parked outside Professional Sports Authenticator's (PSA) Santa Ana, California, headquarters last week and stole roughly 250 packages of freshly graded trading cards.
Police initially estimated the loss at $963,000, a figure that could climb as they value more stolen items.
The Theft
According to reporting citing police, the FedEx driver left the truck near PSA's shipping and receiving entrance for approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Someone broke the lock and took two pallets containing about 100 packages each, plus another 50 packages from a third pallet.
The boxes contained customer orders headed home after grading, including sports and Pokémon cards. A collector-run list of reported missing cards had surpassed 1,000 entries by Tuesday morning.
Trading-card collector Sky-B lost a 104-card submission insured for up to $156,000, while another collector reportedly had approximately $500,000 in cards stolen.
As of October 20, no arrests had been reported, and no merchandise had been recovered. PSA has deactivated the certification numbers on the stolen cards and alerted marketplaces to watch for them.
Who's Responsible?
The thieves, obviously. But collectors also want to know how hundreds of high-value packages disappeared from a truck outside the grading company's headquarters.
FedEx: The truck was reportedly unattended for up to 90 minutes. FedEx says shipment security is a priority and that it is cooperating with police.
PSA: The company stressed that the cards were no longer in its possession and its facility was never breached. But PSA arranges return shipping for customers using its shipping service.
The labels: Collectibles commentator Darren Rovell pointed to the risks of displaying recognizable shipper names such as PSA on packages containing valuable collectibles.
Police haven't established whether the theft was targeted or involved inside assistance.
The Rise of High Value Theft
The FedEx heist wasn't the first time thieves targeted valuable trading cards. Recent thefts have hit card shops, postal shipments and delivery vehicles across the U.S. and abroad.
The broader freight data tells a similar story. Verisk CargoNet reported nearly $725 million in estimated cargo theft losses in 2025, up 60%, with an average theft value of $273,990.
In Q2 2026, reported incidents fell 26% while estimated losses more than doubled to $304.6 million.
Speaking at ATA's Management Conference & Exhibition, Scott Cornell of SPG Cargo & Logistics said physical theft still accounts for roughly 70% of cargo theft. He also pointed to a rise in pilferage, with thieves taking a few pallets instead of an entire truck, as happened in the FedEx case.
"Lower incident volume should not be mistaken for lower risk," said CargoNet's Keith Lewis.
PRESENTED BY BITFREIGHTER
What Happens When EDI Stops Being a Barrier?
For most brokers, every new EDI connection comes with a question: is this customer worth the cost? KCH Transportation stopped asking. After switching to Bitfreighter, they cut EDI costs by 70% and grew from 50 trading partners to more than 270 in two years.
"When the barrier to connect is lower, you can take chances on customers and relationships that you may have approached differently before." — Hunter Landreth, CEO, KCH Transportation.
🌎 AROUND THE FREIGHT WEB
🚛 Werner Just Missed Its Own Guidance by Half. The carrier’s Q3 earnings outlook came in at 15-16 cents a share against a 36-cent consensus, and it’s the second major truckload carrier this fall to flag the same cost squeeze.
🤝 Fura Snaps Up Road Dog Logistics. The AI-powered platform’s eighth acquisition adds a Cincinnati food-and-beverage specialist and about $30 million in revenue to its brokerage roster.
💰 One CEO’s Math Problem for Brokers. A hypothetical $500 million brokerage could lose 28% of its gross profit to a 5% bump in carrier procurement costs, even without changing a single customer rate.
🔧 Thousands of Freightliners Recalled Over Fuel Risk. A Cummins fuel hose defect can separate, causing leaks or stalls, and Daimler says only 3% of the recall population is affected.
📦 Trailer Orders Just Tripled. September volume surged 311% year-over-year to 42,700 units, the third-best seasonally adjusted mark in nearly five years, and ACT Research says it’s not just seasonal.
🙄 Cops Tired of Truckers Hitting Bridge. Indianapolis police say truckers keep learning the hard way that a downtown bridge clears only 12 feet, 4 inches, and they're done untangling the gridlock it causes.
🎣 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR CORNER
Issue 004 of FreightCaviar Print is here.
30-day money-back guarantee.
Subscribe →here.
😂 FREIGHT HUMOR
FreightCaviar has partnered with Alpha Staffing & Recruiting, a boutique logistics staffing and recruiting firm, to provide you with available roles in our industry. Click the role to learn more and apply.
🎧 THE FREIGHT CAVIAR PODCAST
Gabrielius Stonys, Co-Founder of Spotter Labs, joined Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski and Reed Loustalot on the FreightCaviar Podcast to discuss how he turned an AI dispatching startup into a 650-truck operation while carrier profitability collapsed 80%, why he believes scaling down is guaranteed death in trucking, and why autonomous trucks could make up 30% of the market within five to eight years.
Watch it on YouTube, or listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
🎤 MANIFEST VEGAS
The wait is over! Your first look at the Manifest Vegas 2027 agenda is here.
Explore 175+ sessions with 400+ speakers, including 50 Chief Supply Chain Officers and 80 startup CEOs. Topics include AI and automation, global trade, supplier risk, and cost efficiency.
Register now to get $200 off the current price, or $900 off the on-site rate: ManifestVegas.com/FreightCaviar
Get the next one in your inbox.
Free, 3× a week, the brief 15,000+ freight pros read.
