The Sarasota-based company's misfortune underscores the need for business owners to invest in stronger IT procedures and infrastructure, according to experts in the field.
Michael Yelman, president of AI Wire, was alerted to the theft after his IT contractor, Ken Martin of Xpand Technologies based in Jacksonville, noticed the servers went offline.
Martin called police after he visited the Colo4Jax office, the company that housed the servers, and noticed the server racks were empty. During the course of the police investigation, it was discovered that Ray Barnes, president of Colo4Jax, was seen by the fourth-floor manager of the building in front of a rental truck at the time the servers started going offline, according to the police report.
"There are several times throughout the year where the sports industry is extremely busy, like in May, we have Preakness, international tennis, NASCAR, baseball and the NBA championships, and this is not the time to be down," Yelman said.
What made the theft even more untimely, Yelman said, was that he had just brought in two investors and had begun to expand into more international sports settings.
However, after several days of contacting police departments, and searching for known associates through the Internet, Yelman was able to locate Barnes in Miami and reclaim his servers.
Two weeks after the ordeal began, Yelman's business is still not up and running.