The online retailer known as Wildberries just lost dozens of graphics cards following a brazen theft carried out in the middle of the night. Several employees walked into a warehouse in Podolsk, Russia with an empty shopping cart and walked right back out with nearly $38,000 worth of merchandise. The whole episode was caught by security cameras.
The news comes from a report about the incident by Mash. Three suspects can be seen in the footage from the heist as they approach a warehouse clad in company uniforms. The crooks apparently claimed to be at the facility in order to fulfill an online order. The video shows two thieves picking up the merchandise inside a storage room before dropping the graphics cards from a window to an accomplice outside the building who then goes about loading the stolen goods into a getaway car. The security camera footage has already been viewed more than a million times.
Everything seems to have gone swimmingly for the crooks until they tried to sell the merchandise a couple of days down the line. The band of burglars were apparently attempting to offload the graphics cards at various pawn shops in the local area for less than half what they would be worth on the open market, raising the suspicions of at least one wary store owner who notified the police.
The crooks were taken into custody shortly after the police were called. Whatever stolen goods remained in their possession were confiscated, but it remains unclear how many of the graphics cards had already been sold by this point. Supposing they managed to sell what they had, some estimates have the thieves coming away almost $12,000 richer from the heist.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine a couple of weeks ago, companies around the world have been limiting their business dealings in the region, causing the cost of graphics cards to increase exponentially. Some reports indicate that graphics cards have more than tripled in price over the course of this past month, turning them into prime targets for thieves of all stripes.