Stolen cars don’t always stay local or head to chop shops. Often, car theft schemes will assemble ill-gotten vehicles in shipping containers and send them overseas, never to be seen again. But for the owners of a few stolen rides in Texas, they’re getting a second chance with their beloved cars and SUVs. 

The stolen cars and SUVs were crammed into an equally stolen semi-truck trailer

Car thieves steal a vehicle from an American owner every 37 seconds. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), 2024 was the first time in years that thieves stole fewer than one million cars. That figure represents a substantial decrease over the year prior. Better yet, in many cases, stolen cars are recovered by authorities before they’re crashed, stripped for parts, or shipped overseas.

And these Texas vehicle owners are just that lucky. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office Auto Theft Division reports that detectives from the unit tracked down a stolen semi-truck trailer in the Houston area.

When police opened the trailer, they discovered three stolen cars and SUVs. The estimated value of the find? Over $200,000 just in the three rides. One of the vehicles, a late-model Chevrolet Tahoe, starts at around $62,095. And that’s before adding options or opting for higher trim levels. A higher-end Tahoe could push the starting price to around $81,795.

According to a social media post on the HCSO Facebook page, the recovered rides will eventually make their way back to the rightful owners. That said, it isn’t clear whether the owners are Houston-based or whether the cars were already shipped from another location.

Thankfully, stolen cars, trucks, and SUVs are recovered more often than you might think. The NICB claims that authorities were able to recover 34% of vehicles that owners reported stolen in the first 24 hours. As a result, over 85% stolen vehicles were recovered in 2023, meaning authorities found more than 850,000 ill-gotten vehicles.