Gizmodo: missionimpossible

Best Buy Missing 20 Laptops, Police on Lookout For Tom Cruise Wannabes [Crime]

Rosa Golijan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST

A three-foot hole in the roof, footprints on a pipe leading up the side of the building, no alarm ringing, no one on any security footage and missing 20 laptops. Mission Impossible follow up or Best Buy burglary?

The incident is being dubbed the Mission Impossible burglary because the thieves apparently never touched the floor of the New Jersey Best Buy store—they would've set off an alarm if they did. Instead shimmied up a gas pipe, cut a hole in the ceiling of the place, and "dropped 16 feet to 10-foot-tall racks" to snatch the laptops from there. The crew cleverly avoided being caught on any security footage and left the store as quietly as they entered it.

Officers believe that about two to three people were needed to pull off the entire stunt, but I think they just need to ask a certain scientologist about his whereabouts for this particular evening. [NJ]

$20,000 Spy Camera Disguised as Garbage Thrown Out With The Trash [Mission Impossible]

Sean Fallon — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:40:00 EDT

A spy camera hidden in a black bag beside a notorious UK "fly-tipping" (or illegal waste dumping in the King's English) hot spot was recently thrown out by local workers with the other garbage. Apparently, this operation was so top secret that the workers in question did not need to know the details before being sent off to pick up the trash. To make matters worse, the camera has been valued at somewhere between $14 and $20,000. Basically, its just a hilarious waste of taxpayer money illustrated using equally hilarious British terminology. [Telegraph via Digg]

Phantom Burglary Ring Targeting Tech [Gadget SOS]

Jason Chen — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:00:00 EDT

There's a group out in Tulsa who does whatever it takes to get their haul. They cut open ceilings and walls, rappel down surfaces, disable security systems—even climb through air ducts—and manage to make off with $60,000 to $400,000 per strike. And all without leaving a trace of their identity. Sound a bit like the movies? It does to us, too, but we can't help but imagine what kind of gadgetry these guys carry with them.

Now they've turned their eyes toward electronic heists. At a Best Buy in Tulsa, the burglars entered the store by breaching the ceiling, rappelling down to the store office and cutting a hole into it, taking care of the alarms and surveillance of the store, and then took around 50 laptops and 60-inch plasma TVs. And then they took the safe, weighing a few thousand pounds, which is evidently a trademark of this particular ring.

Their earlier exploits make equally interesting reads. Like when they hit a jewelry store tunneling through to it from an adjoining business. Again they took the safe along with the jewels. Last December, they managed to somehow take 60 large appliances from a Hahn Appliance Center by way of an Office Depot, which would no doubt require a massive truck or two to pull off.

Authorities have nothing on these guys. They take what they want and no one finds it ever again. Of course we don't condone robberies at Gizmodo, but if they are ever caught in the future, I just hope they have some pretty hi-tech methods to dish out on, because there's nothing better than custom gadgetry. – Kevin Hall

Professional Burglary Ring On The Loose [KOTV News via CrunchGear]