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'The Playstation Job' Heisters Arrested

Posted by simoniker on from the do-17,000-playstations-fit-in-a-mini? dept.

Thanks to the New Jersey Star-Ledger for their news that a gang who stole $5 million worth of PlayStation consoles in a high-tech train heist have been arrested and indicted. According to the article, the theft ring, known as the 'Conrail Boyz', stole more than $20 million of merchandise from freight trains, and their "..largest single take was 17,496 Sony PlayStation electronic game systems worth more than $5 million and involved members driving off with a cargo container, authorities charged." Seriously, what would you do with 17,000 PlayStations?

1 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. 2+2=5 (million) by nick_davison · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "..largest single take was 17,496 Sony PlayStation electronic game systems worth more than $5 million..." Seriously, what would you do with 17,000 PlayStations?

    I'd probably build them in to a massive beowulf cluster so I could run a massively parallel calculator program.

    17,500 PS2s * $200 (assuming they're the ones with network adapters) comes out to $3.5million. Not $5 million.

    Add to that the fact they're not $200 sales units yet, they're more like $100 wholesale units about to gain a large mark up as they go through distributors, transportation costs and retail. Even sold second hand, assuming you could find 17,500 guys at the pub who all wanted one, you'd be lucky to clear $100 each. So, all in, maybe $1-1.5 million - on a good day. Of course that doesn't make such a good headline.