Grand Theft UPS: copies of GTA stolen en route to retailers

[wraggster]

After reporting on the hype and controversy surrounding the Tuesday release of Grand Theft Auto IV, I can't believe I'm going to write a "this game causes crime!" story, but here we go. I spoke to an employee of UPS over the weekend, and he told me that a surprising amount of workers were getting busted stealing the game from the shipment boxes. In one 24-hour period, three workers were fired, and more interviews were scheduled for today that would likely end in termination.

I asked if this was common when big-name games were released, and he told me no; the situation was novel, or he wouldn't have brought it up at all. The game was enticing enough for many workers to risk losing their job and, in typical fashion for low-level crimes like this, it has been easy to identify the workers stealing the games.

"When we have a [big name release], we communicate it to operations and security teams. We have security in place at the facilities, and we make sure they understand to keep an eye out for things to exit the building," he explained. How did they find where games were stolen? "We had tips from people inside, and some of them were discovered at intermediate hubs... it's easy to spot: flaps torn, some boxes are re-taped." In most cases, the bust is as easy as finding the last person who scanned the box as full and interviewing them.
"They're not selling them, these people are stealing one copy," he told me—all of the thefts seem to be for personal use. It seems many people think stealing a game a few days before release is worth it, and this is far from the perfect crime.

"As long as the people loading the packages are doing their jobs, it's easy to track down," our source told Ars. "It's kind of funny, isn't it? It's a game about theft, and people are stealing it." His eyes began to shine as he said, "and I get to terminate them."

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thum...e-to-retailers

Hey UPS were the same idiots that "LOST" my parcel last week then rang up and said has your Ipod Touch arrived yet, the damned annoying thing was is that the Ipod was a surprise present for my daughters birthday, so not only did they lose the present but they ****ed up by leaving a message saying what it was, now i have a claim going in against UPS to get my money back.

Needless to say ill never use them again.

[ExcruciationX]

LOL.

Good luck with UPS, wraggster.

[rbervoets]

lol, this games gonna get leaked...

[JKKDARK]

They were copies from the Xbox 360 version or the PlayStation 3 version?

[newb_fo_life]

lol, this games gonna get leaked...

It has been already

[ExcruciationX]

They were copies from the Xbox 360 version or the PlayStation 3 version?

How would you go about dumping a PS3 disc if no exploits have come out yet?

[icecoolwas]

Its already leaked for 360.. i just checked.

i wudda tried to steal a gta iv copy if i was there, but id be more stealthy and not get caught..

man they could easily have just used superglue to glue the box up so it looked normal oh well i aint passing any ideas.

[devdj]

i wonder what else UPS staff like to steal

[staticshade]

wow!!! getting fired because of gta well on th plus side at least they have loads of time to play it when it comes out now

[davidcrew]

wow!!! getting fired because of gta well on th plus side at least they have loads of time to play it when it comes out now

lol, so true.

but yeah, this is how it is with everything that comes out that is all hip and new. Remember how the ps3's and the xbox360's were getting ripped world wide in astonishing volumes sometimes?

just label the boxes that they are sent in as like, "war and peace" or like, "laundry" =p