Samsung Factory Raid Nets £21m For Armed Robbers

Brazil has suffered more unwelcome publicity during its football World Cup, after a Samsung factory was looted by armed robbers.

The thieves reportedly held staff at gunpoint and stole truckloads of Samsung devices, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, said to be worth a cool $36m (£21m).

Factory Heist

The dramatic incident took place at the Samsung factory in Campinas, Sao Paulo, according to Reuters.

The seven armed robbers apparently hijacked a shuttle bus as it neared the Samsung factory. They emptied the bus of most of the staff, and then entered the factory during the night and disarmed the security guards. They also apparently rounded up the 100 of so employees, and took their mobile phones to prevent them from alerting the police.

More robbers entered the factory in seven lorries, and over the next three hours, proceeded to load up the vehicles with the latest Samsung tech. A total of 20 robbers are thought to have been involved, and they apparently escaped with 40,000 Samsung products.

Reuters quoted a spokesman for the Brazilian state’s public security secretariat, who said that state police are investigating the attack, but no suspects have yet been identified. A spokesman for Samsung in Sao Paulo also reportedly confirmed the heist but said police estimates for the value of the stolen goods were too high.

“We have cooperated fully with the police investigation that is underway and will do our best to avoid any sort of repeat incident,” Samsung Eletronica da Amazonia Ltda., the manufacturing unit of the Korean electronics giant in Brazil, said in a statement.

Due to the scale of the incident, police believe the thieves had inside help. Samsung has also said insurance will cover most of the costs related to the robbery.

“It is regrettable the incident took place. However, it is fortunate that there were no casualties,” Samsung tsaid in a statement to Bloomberg. “The police are currently investigating the incident, and we will fully cooperate with the police authorities and will make utmost efforts to resolve this issue.”

The case highlights how computing devices can sometimes become an attractive target for criminals. Back in the mid 1990s, RAM chips inside PCs were a lot more valuable, leading to numerous office thefts globally where thieves would simply steal the memory chips out of computers.

They were also cases of truckloads of memory chips being hijacked and stolen by armed robbers.

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