Organized bandits make off with $12 million worth of PC components
In a daring early morning heist that could just as easily have been a scene from a movie like, um, The Heist, 20-plus well-organized robbers infiltrated a Malaysian warehouse complex on Monday, immediately subdued all 17 employees, and proceeded to steal over $12 million worth of microchips and motherboards. The thieves were able to gain access to the facility through a classic Trojan horse maneuver, wherein drivers of a truck that rolled up to the MASKargo Complex gate in Batu Maung, Penang tricked customs officials into believing that they were doing an undercover sweep for illegal immigrants. Once inside, the rest of the bandits lept out of the back of the vehicle and used chloroform to knock out the passive workers and sticks to beat down the non-compliant ones. It took the team nearly an hour to load up an astounding 18 pallets and 585 cartons full of components belonging to an unnamed multi-national corporation based out of Bayan Lepas, after which they sped off into the night with their valuable, high-tech booty. Police claim to have already captured two suspects in the case -- both were, shockingly , workers at the complex -- and are in the midst of hunting down the rest of the gang that pulled off what was clearly an inside job. As for the copious amount of missing PC hardware, officials speculate that the bandits will either sell them to shady OEMs on the black market, or, more likely, use them to build a supercomputer for leapfrogging to the top of the Folding@Home rankings.[Via The Inquirer]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TwhiT @ Nov 21st 2006 2:25PM
that picture is from The Usual Suspects, a waaay better movie than The Heist, imo :)
Meltz; @ Nov 21st 2006 5:40PM
YES!!! An amazing movie - Kaiser Soze is my hero.
The Downer @ Nov 21st 2006 2:37PM
It appears that the thieves have made a grievous error. Those parts were headed toward the construction of a nuclear missile, a deal which would have been very profitable for mister Sze.
- @ Nov 21st 2006 2:41PM
The only other person I've seen use chloroform to knock out victims is Homer J. Simpson... and there was that one time he got it mixed up with Colorforms.
Gil @ Nov 21st 2006 2:50PM
Watch some old school spy/heist movies.
Kids these days with their fancy chemicals.
HEY! GET OFF MY LAWN!
crackpipe @ Nov 21st 2006 2:49PM
chloroform? I call bs. It only works in the movies. in real life, the amount of cloroform it would take to knock some out is also a lethal dossage. And it's not instantaneous. It takes a good amount of time. The workers would be vomitting for a while before they passed out.
from wikipedia:
"Chloroform once appeared in toothpastes, cough syrups, ointments, and other pharmaceuticals, but it has been banned in consumer products in the United States since 1976.
The NTP's eleventh report on carcinogens implicates it as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen, a designation equivalent to IARC class 2A. It has been most readily associated with hepatocellular carcinoma."
Good way to give someone cancer!
mike @ Nov 21st 2006 3:25PM
this is the best thing ive ever heard of !
startrekguy @ Nov 21st 2006 4:13PM
Hmm.... if memory recalls, only 3 companies that had that kind of stuff sitting around in Penang. It could be either AMD, Intel or Dell. But then again, I haven't been to Penang for ages.
A_M @ Nov 21st 2006 4:54PM
Hmm...Saucy. Can't wait to get a 8800GTS for 90 off eBay!
Vinn @ Nov 21st 2006 7:08PM
Haha, that picture is perfect. Damn, 12 million dollars worth.. that is a lot of computer parts.
Marc Brooks @ Nov 21st 2006 9:20PM
Morons, that's The Usual Suspect, not that crappy The Heist movie.
Matt B @ Nov 22nd 2006 12:48AM
I guess we'll know when we see 'Dellways' on the market.
o0adam0o @ Nov 22nd 2006 12:49AM
Keep your eyes open folks...ebay.com should be having some black friday sales ;)
Nathan @ Nov 22nd 2006 12:49AM
Maybe it wasn't chloroform maybe it was a powerful Ammonia or base. You can make someone pass out with those, just a swift waft under a nose and bam lights out.
elleana @ Nov 22nd 2006 3:22AM
The "unnamed multi-national corporation" is Intel.
http://www.hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?id=6006&cid=12
ffresh @ Dec 30th 2006 3:12AM
i think these guys are the unnamed multinational corporation: http://www.wpi.com.sg/
they're a distributor and probably manufacturer FOR intel, though, i guess..
Casey @ Nov 22nd 2006 1:03PM
This link says the losing company was Intel: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Wednesday/Frontpage/20061122072150/Article/index_html
... @ Nov 23rd 2006 4:59PM
And I thought that sampling parts online was bad...
doctorsound @ Nov 24th 2006 9:34PM
The last bit took the cake. "use them to build a supercomputer for leapfrogging to the top of the Folding@Home rankings." I can't belive they beat me to it!