Nearly $1M in Trading Cards Vanishes From FedEx Truck in Santa Ana

Trading cards valued at approximately $963,000 — a figure that could rise — disappeared from a FedEx truck parked in Santa Ana, California, with the driver discovering the loss only when he found the cargo door's lock missing on October 13. Two full pallets were gone, each holding roughly 100 packages of collectible cards, and someone had stripped an undetermined number of parcels from a third. The final loss may exceed the initial estimate once investigators complete their inventory.

The vehicle was parked in a lot belonging to Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), the company that authenticates and grades trading cards. Although PSA owns the property, members of the public can access the parking area. The lock securing the rear cargo door was absent; when the driver opened the compartment, the contents were disturbed and several shipments were missing.

What do investigators actually know?

So far, remarkably little. Santa Ana police have not established when or where the theft occurred, and the location of the discovery does not settle the question — finding the cargo missing at PSA does not mean thieves accessed the truck there rather than somewhere along its route.

The driver had left the vehicle before noticing the missing lock. Other outlets reported he was away for 60 to 90 minutes, but a department spokesperson told FreightWaves on Tuesday that investigators could not confirm that timeline. Detectives are reviewing his account to reconstruct the vehicle's movements and the circumstances of the discovery.

Several basic facts remain unresolved:

• Investigators have not identified any suspects or made any arrests.
• Police cannot confirm whether the shipment was targeted specifically for its collectible cards.
• The department does not know how many individual cards disappeared.
• Authorities have not confirmed the vehicle type — tractor-trailer, box truck or smaller delivery unit.
• No merchandise has been recovered.

On Tuesday, October 20, detectives returned to the PSA facility to review potential surveillance footage and gather additional evidence.

What has FedEx and PSA said?

FedEx issued a statement in response to FreightWaves: "The security of our customers' shipments is a top priority, and we are working with local law enforcement in their investigation." The company did not clarify whether the driver was delivering cards to PSA for grading or collecting completed orders for return shipment — a distinction that matters for identifying which customers are affected.

FreightWaves also contacted PSA to clarify the shipment's direction and the scope of affected customers. The company had not responded before publication. Santa Ana police say customers concerned about missing cards should contact PSA directly; authorities have not released a complete inventory of affected shipments, and the number of impacted customers remains unknown.

How does this fit the broader cargo theft picture?

Southern California remained a major cargo theft hot spot during the second quarter of 2026, and CargoNet reported $304.6 million in cargo theft losses nationwide over the same period. Both figures frame the financial scale of stolen freight in the region, though neither report explains how the FedEx shipment disappeared.

For carriers and shippers, the case underscores two operational exposures. High-value, easily fenced cargo — graded collectibles among them — attracts targeted theft, and unattended vehicles in publicly accessible lots present a window of vulnerability even during short stops. The inability of investigators to pin down the time or location of the loss also points to the value of maintaining a continuous record of cargo movements, including seals and lock checks at every stop.

A $963,000 loss on a single parked vehicle approaches the level at which cargo insurance claims draw sustained scrutiny — and for the affected collectors, individual graded cards can carry values that no per-package estimate will fully capture until the inventory is finished.

With no suspects, no recovered merchandise and no confirmed timeline, the investigation now rests on surveillance footage from the PSA lot and detectives' reconstruction of the truck's route — and until FedEx or PSA clarifies the shipment's direction, the universe of affected customers stays undefined.