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Over 12,000 black Nintendo DS Lite Systems Stolen

Posted by timothy on Thu Jun 15, 2006 08:58 AM
from the is-that-retail-wholesale-or-government-contract dept.
Portables (Games) The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games
Wowzer writes "$2.32 million worth of black Nintendo DS Lite systems stolen in Hong Kong when their shipment making its way from China, where the DS Lites are made, to Europe where the black DS Lites are launching on June 23rd. The Hong Kong police suspected that the black DS Lite units sold in Hong Kong recently were part of the same theft and offers one million Hong Kong dollars ($128,840 or 102,138) to anyone with a tip. So next time you see one being sold on eBay from Hong Kong, give the cops a call."
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[+] DS Claims EU Dominance 172 comments
Gamasutra reports that, at least in the EU, the Nintendo DS has the portable war pretty much locked up for the time being. 200,000 units of the DS Lite were sold in the ten days after its launch. From the article: "According to Nintendo of Europe, the Nintendo DS has now secured the lead in the handheld market in Europe, with sales of the format exceeding 5 million. No sales figures from Sony are available to compare directly, with only a "shipped" figure of almost 6 million for all territories bar North America and Japan." Interestingly, 136,500 units were sold in the United States in just the first two days after the handheld console's launch.
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Over 12,000 black Nintendo DS Lite Systems Stolen 50 Comments More /

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  • is a black DS included? (Score:4, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) (945888) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:02AM (#15539520)
    Is a black DS lite included in that 1M HKDollars? If not, count me out...

    • Re:is a black DS included? (Score:4, Funny)

      by jongi_ct (738355) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:08AM (#15539574) Journal
      Just bought one here in South Africa for ZAR-20, which is $3.3, it is being sold by Nigerians on black market, I knew anything comes out of these chaps(Nigerians) is stolen :-). I need a number wher I can reach the Police, please reply

      • Re:is a black DS included? (Score:5, Funny)

        by h2d2 (876356) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:34AM (#15539809) Homepage

        Dear Friend

        My name is Amaandu Butaani and I am the head of the secret police of the order of the stolen merchandise sale in Nigeria. Recently my capitan got hold of a large container with overt 5000 Nintendo GameCube DS LITE version. I can ship them to your doorstep with FedEX, in return you can send me one (1) Ipod VIDEO version. Please reply with your social security number and complete bank informacion. My wife and children in great danger, and so my life.

        Your friend,,,,
        Amaandu Butaani

    • Re:is a black DS included? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Brain: One million dollars can buy many black DS lites!
      gEvil: Explain how!
      Brain: Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
      gEvil: Woo hoo!

  • Finally!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by numbski (515011) * <numbski AT hksilver DOT net> on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:02AM (#15539521) Homepage Journal
    *Looks at RIAA/MPAA*

    *points*

    THOSE ARE PIRATES! GOT IT!?!?!?!!

    Sheesh. I'm gonna go get some coffee now. :P

  • Currency symbol? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:02AM (#15539523)
    one million Hong Kong dollars ($128,840 or 102,138) -- 102,138 what?
    • This is a common fallacy in reports about companies getting robbed. They always state the loss of (units x price), when all they really lost was (units x cost).
      • Wow, so you didn't even bother to read the summary. Good job!

        And to whichever mod modded the GP 'offtopic,' it's a perfectly valid question. Knowing which currency the 102,138 number is in would help. I'd look it up in TFA, but fucking Websense won't let me.

      • Re:Currency symbol? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Cougem (734635) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:37AM (#15539838)
        Not at all. If they only have enough resources to make a certain number of units, and they've forcasted a certain profit coming from them, and are relying on that profit, then if a large proportion of those units a lost, then it can cause a lot of problems. Yes, they've lost the money it took to create the units, but they've also lost the profits, which they may not be able to make up for some time.
        • I don't know if the units were insured for full retail value or less, but a big chunk of the cost is going to be caught by Nintendo's (or the shipper's) insurance company.

          If they pay out the cash quickly, it may even work out in Nintendo's favor (given interest rates and an average time to pay for merchandise ordered by retailers of about 90 days...). Actually, that's not likely but it is possible.
    • 102,138 Euro. For some reason if you enter the Euro symbol into your comment (or at least if you use the character from TFA), it gets stripped out.
  • They prefer to be call African-American DSs.

    • Re:Not Politically Correct (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      African-American DS Lite's stole my bike!
    • Except that you Americans are only getting white ones (insert alternative racism joke here). And here in Europe, where the machines were supposed to be going, you're more likely to find someone take offence by calling them American than Black...

  • Catch 22 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mfh (56) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:05AM (#15539547) Journal
    This could be a PR stunt, because any thief stupid enough to steal ALL the black DS units would never be able to sell them without getting caught. On the other hand... maybe Nintendo should hold off on shipping more?

    Here's a mugshot of the evidence [engadget.com].
    • Just a note, that is the wrong pic. That is one of the Regular black DS, where they are saying the Black DS Lites were the ones stolen.
    • that would be an interesting approach.
    • Yes, because filing a false police report is the way to get people to buy your product. No, it's not Nintendo's doing. Why would you delay your own product being launched by saying "they were stolen" to make them sell better when... get this... DS LITES ARE ALREADY SELLING WELL! Yes, several retail outlets were out of stock when I checked (NewEgg was out of stock too). Also, your logic that "any thief stupid enough to steal ALL the black DS units would never be able to sell them without getting caught"
    • That's a picture of an original DS in black. What's been stolen is a batch of black DS lites [videogamesblogger.com], the new style.
    • Eh, I don't think they stole all the black DS lites, 12k units would not be enough for the European release. :P

  • How can people tell them appart? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ignem (941653) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:05AM (#15539548)
    So how are people buying one on ebay supposed to know wether or not it was part of the stolen shipment?

    • Re:How can people tell them appart? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by blueZhift (652272) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:16AM (#15539657) Homepage Journal
      That's a very good question. My guess is that since the theft is relatively high profile, that eBay may feel obliged to shut down all auctions of black DS Lites for a while. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if Nintendo itself made such a request. In any case, anyone trying to sell any of the stolen DS Lites is likely going to attract more attention than usual for a while and has a higher risk of getting caught. Knowing this, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to get a black DS Lite on eBay right now since you wouldn't know and may even end up having to give the DS back if it turns out to be part of the stolen shipment.

    • So how are people buying one on ebay supposed to know wether or not it was part of the stolen shipment?

      Well, first of all, considering that it's a 'new product' one shouldn't be seeing it all that often. Also, I don't know if you noticed, but many consumer electronics have what's call a serial number, which may uniquely identify a particular unit. So, here's your oppurtunity to get a fancy new DS system, and collect a $120,000 reward, so get shopping. Of course, if you do find that your unit is stolen,

  • Exchange value (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rob T Firefly (844560) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:06AM (#15539562) Homepage Journal
    $128,840
    That works out to 1,288 1UPs! Count me in! *puts on overalls and moustache*

  • HK police contact info (Score:5, Informative)

    by mincognito (839071) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:09AM (#15539585)
    So next time you see one being sold on eBay from Hong Kong, give the cops a call
    Considering the reward involved i would contact the HK police directly if you have any info:

    email: pprb@police.gov.hk
    phone: + 852 25277177 (police hotline); +852 25277887 (Organised Crime and Triad Hotline)

  • Grammar grammer gramma (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kccricket (217833) <kccricketNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:10AM (#15539591) Homepage
    Something is seriously wrong witht that first sentence. Remove the descriptors and it breaks down to this:
    "Nintendo DS Lite systems stolen when their shipment to Europe where the black DS Lites are launching on June 23rd"

    Were they stolen on the ship by pirates? I don't understand.

  • Serial Numbers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Detritus (11846) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:12AM (#15539612) Homepage
    Assuming that the police have a list of the serial numbers, the thieves may have a hard time unloading their loot without being caught. "I bought it from some guy off the back of a truck" is not a good defense to buying stolen goods.
    • Thief rings scratch the serial numbers off guns. I really don't think they'll have any qualms about doing so with a game boy.

      Unless you're implying that I've missed out on some sort of law that makes owning an electronic device without a serial number equivalent to High Treason.
      • law that makes owning an electronic device without a serial number equivalent to High Treason.

        Gamers are pretty serious about taking care of their stuff. Try to sell them a device that's been defaced and you just might hear some angry words. There might even be discussion of violence. As we all know, once you get to that point high treason is just around the corner.
      • One of the great things of the DS is the internet play. Nintendo just has to ban the MAC addresses/serial numbers for those units and buyers lose out on that part of the fun.
          • Even if your MAC address is not sent beyond the gateway, your unique gamer ID number for any particular game is a combination of your MAC address and a hash value associated with the game. As one of those is a known value which remains constant, it shouldn't require too much effort on Nintendo's part to generate a list of gamer IDs for each online game and match them up accordingly.
      • I wouldn't want to be a storekeeper with a dozen Nintendo DS Lites on the shelf, all with missing serial numbers. How are you going to explain that to the police?

  • Ninjas (Score:5, Funny)

    by Skidge (316075) * on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:12AM (#15539615) Homepage
    I'd blame ninjas. They'd obviously go after the black DS Lites, since they'd go better with their outfits.

  • To whom it may concern: (Score:5, Funny)

    by timster (32400) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:23AM (#15539717)
    I am currently looking for a black DS Lite at a, uh, reasonable price. Please contact me as soon as possible if you happen to have a, er, glut of such items that you are just looking to get rid of, no questions asked.

  • Apple charges extra for black... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Speare (84249) on Thursday June 15 2006, @09:30AM (#15539768) Homepage
    Funny, Apple charges extra for a black iPod or a black MacBook. Now Nintendo is claiming that black DS Lite units will be more rare, and thus the market will probably inflate their value. I'm not saying the companies are gonna merge, or anything.

  • I didn't do it (Score:4, Funny)

    by MooseTick (895855) on Thursday June 15 2006, @10:12AM (#15540164) Homepage
    As a side note, I have a connection who independently has obtained around 999,999 - 1,000,001 very dark brown(almost black) DS Lites and is looking to unload them cheap. Any parties interested can contact him on via PicoChat.

  • Stolen? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Maradine (194191) * on Thursday June 15 2006, @10:25AM (#15540277) Homepage
    Item #5667815901
    ----

    1 Truck
    Big-ish, holds about, I don't know, 12,000 Pop-tarts boxes.
    Registered in Hong Kong (License: MTHRLOD) Buyer responsible for tag and title.
    Comes with full tank.
    Might want to sanitize the back.

    $50 OBO.

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