Earlier this year, Malaysian authorities carried out a bunch of raids around the airport at Miri, where it was suspected that crypto-mining outfits were stealing electricity off the grid. Six men were eventually charged, and to celebrate, Malaysian cops took all their rigs and publicly crushed them.
As Dayak Daily reports, six raids in total were carried out between February and April after a local power company noticed some weirdness, and a total of 1069 computers were seized.
Eight men were arrested, of whom six were charged, and they all face fines and up to eight months in prison. Not for the crypto-mining, which itself isn’t against the law, but for stealing the electricity needed to power their operations.
The raids came as local cops sought to crack down on crypto-related electricity theft, not just for the act itself but also the hazards involved, as three homes in the area have already caught fire in 2021 thanks to the shoddy ways miners have been hooking their operations up to the power grid.
Anyway, that’s all background! We’re all just here for the video of the cops, with those 1069 computers nicely seized, taking a literal steamroller to them in a very public statement of...something.
Yes, I know those computers could have been recycled or put to better use. Yes, I know this is a petty and public show of police dick-swinging. Yes, I know it’s going to take them all day to do this at the rate they’re going. But none of that makes this video any less enjoyable.
I know this isn’t strictly Video Game Content, but I’ve been tormented enough lately by crypto-related scams, from useless video loot boxes to artists being employed as a front by currency grifters, that I’m taking pleasure in this regardless.