A 32-year-old man from Seattle is wanted in relation to a year-long crime spree at Valve.
Shawn Shaputis now has multiple arrest warrants out in his name, with reports suggesting he’s the one behind a series of burglaries at Valve which started in June of 2018.
It’s believed that up to five thefts took place at Valve’s Bellevue Washington office from last summer to now, resulting in around a $40,000 USD loss for the gaming company.
According to Seattle police, Shaputis has admitted to the crime spree but has yet to be arrested. The thefts allegedly saw Shaputis load up a recycling bin with stolen goods to his car to make off with the items, including tech and games.
Shaputis was then captured on camera selling on the stolen goods at a local GameStop [insert joke about GameStop’s low trade-in prices right here].
Seattle police have stated that Shaputis has previously spent time in jail for unrelated robberies [via GamesIndustry.biz]. He’s scheduled to be arraigned this week, and if he neglects to show up, another warrant will be issued.
Twitter is, of course, having a field day with the news. One user jokes: “Unsure whether the funniest part of this story is that the guy successfully broke into Valve on at least four separate occasions to steal sh*t or the fact that he got caught flipping stolen games at Gamestop.”
Another Valve employee member added: “This pre-dates my starting at Valve, but the only copy of Half Life 3 now being in a GameStop bargain bin absolutely explains why I’ve not seen any evidence in-house.”
It’s not known what sort of information – if any – was stored on the stolen hardware, but let’s hope it wasn’t Half-Life 3. And if so, let’s hope it doesn’t find its way to a GameStop bargain bin…
Featured Image Credit: Pixabay