The Great Game Robbery: £600k worth recovered, stolen again

By Tor Thorsen on 01 October 2008, 10:00am

In the game industry's version of the Great Train Robbery, police this week seized and impounded a truck carrying a fortune in stolen PlayStation 3 games -- then promptly had them pinched again.

According to The Sun, the driver of a truck carrying 16,000 units of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway stopped by the roadside in Northampton. As the driver rested, thieves emptied the truck of all its copies of the Ubisoft WWII shooter, which the tabloid estimated as being worth £600,000 wholesale. Most UK retailers are selling the game for £40, putting the load's retail worth at £639,000.

The seven pallets' worth of games were transferred to another truck, which was driven to Leeds. There, according to The Sun, police pulled over the vehicle after noticing it had stolen licence plates and impounded the truck, storing it at their secure garage.

Then, what should've been a straightforward case took an unexpected turn. Police discovered in the morning that locks on the garage's shuttered windows had been cut away. The stolen software-laden truck had vanished, and was recovered several days later in a shopping mall parking lot, completely emptied of its illicit gaming goods.

"We are pursuing a number of lines of enquiry, including eBay transactions where a number of the games have been potentially identified as being advertised for sale," a Leeds police spokesman told The Sun. Arrests have already been reportedly made in the case, though no further specifics were given. -Tor Thorsen