Thieves Steal President’s Teleprompter

TOTUS was taken -- at least for a little bit.

That's right, a truck carrying the president's teleprompter (jokingly referred to as TOTUS, or the teleprompter of the United States), podiums, and audio equipment was stolen in Virginia, WWBT-TV reports.

The Department of Defense confirmed the heist, but it's unclear if the thieves targeted the vehicle for what it contained or simply got "lucky."

WWBT has more:

We're told the truck was parked at the Virginia Center Commons Courtyard Marriott in advance on Wednesday's presidential visit to Chesterfield.

Sources said inside that vehicle was about $200,000 worth of sound equipment, several podiums and presidential seals, behind which only the President himself can stand.

They told NBC12 around 12:30 Monday afternoon that truck was recovered in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express near the airport and hotel staff confirm police activity.  One guest we spoke with said he saw various law enforcement agencies examining a white box truck parked there.

Still, even though the truck was recovered it's unclear from reports if any of the equipment was removed from the vehicle or if it was just missing temporarily.

"No classified or sensitive information was in the vehicle," a Defense Information Systems Agency spokesperson told WWBT. "We take incidents such as this very seriously and a formal investigation is continuing."

(H/T: Business Insider)