Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR
- In a high-stakes heist, thieves stole 2,810 units of the newly released Nintendo Switch 2 console from a semi-truck.
- The driver reported the robbery to authorities in Colorado after he discovered the missing cargo.
- The stolen consoles are worth a whopping $1.4 million.
If you pre-ordered a Nintendo Switch 2 from GameStop, there’s a chance your console was part of a $1.4 million shipment stolen from a semi-truck in Colorado.
In what can be described as a real-life “heist mode,” 2,810 newly released Nintendo Switch 2 consoles vanished from a truck stop in Colorado, leaving law enforcement scrambling for answers and appealing to the public for any information about the incident.
According to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, the massive Nintendo Switch 2 theft was discovered on the morning of June 8 at a Love’s Truck Stop in Bennett, Colorado. The truck driver was preparing for the next leg of his trip when he noticed the trailer had been broken into. Inside was a goldmine of 2,810 Nintendo Switch 2 units, each valued at $499, freshly shipped from Nintendo of America’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The final destination of the consoles was a GameStop in Grapevine, Texas, but unfortunately, they never made it.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office
The driver told deputies he did not know what was in the trailer, only that it was games or toys, the sheriff’s office noted in a Facebook post. It’s still unclear where exactly the heist occurred, how the robbers managed to take off such a big load from the truck, and where they vanished.
“If caught, the suspects could face charges of felony theft valued at $1 million or more, as well as Criminal Mischief,” the sheriff’s office said.
While it may seem like the thieves hit the jackpot at a time when demand for the Nintendo Switch 2 is at an all-time high, the illegal haul might not ultimately be worth much to the robbers. Alternatively, they could make a lot of money selling these consoles, with customers becoming the ultimate victims of the theft.
Each Nintendo Switch 2 unit has a unique serial number, and Nintendo can remotely disable stolen consoles, rendering them useless for resale or online play. That means anyone buying a Switch 2 from unofficial channels could unknowingly get one of these units and end up with a bricked device.
So, if you see a great deal on a Switch 2 from a source you don’t know or trust, you might want to think twice before buying it.
