Rock Band cargo theft (Grand Theft….Rock Band…?)

More than 1,000 copies of the new popular video game Rock Band and the accompanying “musical” instruments for the game were jacked from a trucker near Los Angeles. Via the LA Times:

The robbers kidnapped the truck driver and held him at gunpoint while they unloaded the cargo. In addition to the game disc, “Rock Band” features a drum set, a guitar and a microphone so players can pretend to be performers.

“We’re glad no one got hurt,” said Bryce Baer, a spokesman for Electronic Arts Inc., the game’s Redwood City, Calif.-based publisher. “We hope these guys end up forming a rock band in jail.”

The Xbox 360 version of “Rock Band” that was stolen retails for $169, making the score worth more than $170,000.

Authorities say they don’t have any suspects but believe it was an inside job because the thieves knew that the truck, which featured no obvious sign of the goods it held, was worth hijacking.
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Company President Paul Sandhu said the load was on its way to a Michigan warehouse and was insured.

“Trucks and trailers do get stolen, but never in this way,” he said. “This is very rare.”

Although hijackings are uncommon, the pilfering of goods as they enter and leave the ports became so rampant earlier this decade that trucking and shipping companies lobbied state lawmakers to give the crime its own designation. The Legislature obliged in 2004, passing a bill that made cargo theft a crime punishable by as many as four years in prison.

“Game consoles, flat-screen TVs, computers are particularly sought after,” said Johnson, who estimated that less than 5% of the goods stolen from trucks and ships are recovered. “They’re easy to move and they’re high-dollar.”

This kind of thing happens more often than people think, particularly in busy port areas like Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Be careful and insure your goods. And be nice to the cargo theft task forces, they have a pretty tough job and not enough people to deal with the problem.