About half of the 2,000 wedding gowns stolen before they could reach a California fundraiser last year have been recovered at the Mexico border, officials said.
The gowns, valued at more than $2 million, were discovered last week in a tractor-trailer re-entering the United States at Nogales after attempting to go into Mexico, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Tuesday.
The driver of the 40-foot-long trailer was arrested and the rig was impounded.
Fran Hansen, director of the Making Memories Foundation, said 1,024 of the donated gowns were recovered.
In November, the tractor trailer and cab carrying the gowns were stolen from the parking lot of a Scottsdale hotel. At the time, the gowns had been on their way to a fundraiser in West Hollywood, Calif., to benefit women with breast cancer.
Hansen said she wasn’t sure if the driver was connected to the thefts.
“We do have the trailer, and we do have the dresses,” said Brian Levin, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.