A thief stole Valve equipment and games worth $40,000. The fact that he wasn’t caught is thanks to a trick.
What was stolen? In June 2018, a thief initially gained unnoticed access to the offices of Valve, the studio behind Steam. There, he managed to steal games and equipment worth $40,000. He did this over several occasions.
Burglary with a Trash Can
Where exactly was the break-in? The affected offices are Valve’s in Lincoln Square South, Bellevue, Washington. Other companies such as Unity, Epic Games, The Pokémon Company, and Samsung also have some premises there.
How did the thief manage to steal the items unnoticed? The 32-year-old man, Shawn Shaputis, entered the building with a recycling trash can and simply loaded various computers, accessories, and games into it. Although he was filmed by the surveillance camera, the security staff likely thought he was a service person. Someone who was just picking up the trash.
With the trash can, he then left the building and loaded everything into his car. He later sold some of the games at a Gamestop store. There are even surveillance videos of that.
How was the thief caught? Shawn Shaputis was arrested in June 2018 for further thefts after he had a police chase in a stolen FedEx delivery van. In his car, the officers then found the equipment and games from Valve.
Shawn Shaputis now has to answer in court.
Was anything else important stolen? It is currently unclear whether the thief might have managed to seize any trade secrets from Valve. However, that seems rather unlikely. He was probably just looking to take games and computers to sell them.
Moreover, Valve likely will not store important files on any employee PCs.
