Why Rob a Factory in Brazil? For Millions of Dollars’ Worth of Samsung Tablets, Phones and Laptops

From the Washington Post:

RIO DE JANEIRO — Outrageous crimes happen with a certain frequency in Brazil. Bank robbery by way of a tunnel painstakingly dug from a nearby building is one favorite. ATMs are regularly ripped out of supermarkets and blown up, with mixed results. Dangerous criminals constantly fail to return to prison from holiday visits home (these are allowed, as are conjugal visits). Crime, in Brazil, can —and often does — pay.

But the daring robbery at a Samsung factory in Campinas in the early hours of Monday took the biscuit. An armed gang spent hours loading an enormous haul of cellphones, laptops and tablets onto a fleet of trucks, which then split off in different directions.

“They carried it off in approximately seven trucks and left the place with 40,000 products,” a spokesman for Campinas police told The Washington Post by telephone. Local media said $36 million worth of merchandise was stolen, based on preliminary reports. Samsung said Monday night that $6.3 million in goods were stolen and that just 50 employees were held....MORE