Tucson-area trucking business robbed over Thanksgiving weekend

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – A nationwide crime hit a local business here in southern Arizona.

Tucson Transport Inc., a trucking company in Tucson, took a break for the holiday weekend and everyone came back to find an unwanted surprise.

For Russell Platt the company, it’s always busy season, but this Thanksgiving you didn’t find their trucks on the road.

“I wanted to make sure that everyone was home to spend the holidays with their families and really just give them some time off,” Platt said.

His good deed didn’t go unpunished.

After the long weekend, Platt got a phone call saying that parts on 11 of his trucks were missing and the locks looked tampered with.

“My mind immediately went to we’ve been robbed and someone had stolen the CPC units,” Platt said.

A CPC, or common powertrain controller, is basically the brains of the truck as it helps the engine “talk to” other parts of the rig. According to several reports, the problem is growing and can cost a company thousands of dollars for each CPC stolen.

Those units are a crucial part of the truck’s ability to operate. They’re in high demand across the country because of a large backorder… making them a prime target for thieves.

If the trucks aren’t moving, Platt’s business can’t make money.

“My first instinct was ‘I can’t survive this,’” Platt said. “If you look around my yard, every truck is sitting.”

Tucson Transport has been operating for more than two decades. Platt said to have something like this happen after years of service, it’s a gut punch.

“For someone to feel that it’s OK to come in and steal from my family, and when I say my family, I’m talking about my mechanics, my drivers, my office personnel, that’s a ripple effect that hurts all of us,” Platt said.

Tucson Transport is asking anyone with information to please come forward to help return that equipment and prevent something like this happening in the future.

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