Last month, Bellevue Police charged 32 year-old Shawn Shaputis with a succession of burglaries in 2018, including repeatedly breaking into the headquarters of Valve and stealing a bunch of games, computers and accessories. Among them were 48 PS4 and Xbox One games. Which he sold to GameStop for $335.
As Polygon reports, he was charged with one count of burglary and one count of trafficking of stolen property related to the GameStop sale, which was a real thing and price and not just a joke I made up for the intro.
Police say he gained access to Valve HQ through a “non-functioning stairwell door,” and was able to steal the games and equipment from the 11th floor of the building, one of nine occupied by the company.
He scooped everything he stole into a large trash can and walked straight out the building. In addition to the console games, Shaputis is accused of stealing laptops, Nintendo Switch consoles, Steam machine units, and, bizarrely, the minigun Gabe Newell used in a photoshoot for a Forbes Magazine feature back in 2011.
Shaputis is also wanted on a number of other charges, including stealing a FedEx truck in 2018 and leading police on a high-speed chase.