Thieves Steal 7,000 Wii U Consoles In Daring Warehouse Heist

Look out, Danny Ocean, you’ve got some competition: Last night, in a daring warehouse heist near Seattle’s SeaTac airport, thieves made off with 7,000 Nintendo Wii U consoles. Yes, you read that right: Seven thousand

As reported by ABC News, the heist occurred during last night’s storm. The thieves rolled into SeaTac’s Seattle Air Cargo warehouse in two semi trucks, entered the warehouse, and used a forklift to load pallets of Wii U’s into the semis and a third box-truck before driving off into the night. Can’t say they didn’t have guts.

The ABC report is a bit unclear about whether the consoles stolen were the new Wii U or the older Wii, but a spokesperson for the King County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Kotaku that the consoles stolen were in fact Wii U’s. With an average price of around $300 per console, that means the thieves made off with around $2.1 million in hardware. Dang.

Here’s the ABC report:

Investigators are scouring the area for two trailers with the words “McKinney” written on the side, as well as a Seattle Air Cargo box-truck, which the thieves also stole. Images below via ABC News:

“I’d be surprised if they’re still using that truck and that trailer,” a King County Sheriff’s Office representative told Kotaku over the phone, “but we still want people to call if they see anybody advertising for any great deals for Wii U’s on Ebay or privately, especially if there’s a large quantity of them.” The King County Sheriff’s office can be reached at 206-296-3311.

It may be possible to track individual Wii U’s and determine if they’ve been stolen, though we’re not entirely certain how that would work. I reached out to Nintendo for more information, but they were unable to comment. If there is an anti-theft measure, Nintendo likely wouldn’t want to talk about it, since it would be the first thing thieves would disable. If I get more information, I’ll update this article.

In the meantime: If some guy in a back alley offers to sell you a thousand Wii U’s for a fraction of their retail price, think twice.

Note: In an earlier version of this story, I attributed the speculation about the Wii U’s anti-theft measures to a Nintendo spokesperson, when my PR contact was speaking extemporaneously and not in an official capacity. Nintendo has no official comment about anti-theft measures.