A Samsung factory in the city of Campinas near Sao Paulo, Brazil, was attacked by about 20 robbers who took away more than 40,000 devices in more than seven trucks.
The attack was initiated by carjacking a shuttle used by the company to transport devices. The vehicle was stopped on its way to the factory in the industrial hub in the city of Campinas in the south-eastern state of Sao Paulo just before midnight by 7 armed men who took over the vehicle and transported 6 of the 8 employees on board to a remote place and set them free.
The vehicle was then taken to the factory where the security guards were disarmed and about 50 employees were held hostage during the 4 hours of the robbery.
The footage from a security camera shows the robbers dressed in black and wore a dark headgear making it impossible to trace their identities, while they were loading and moving crates of Samsung devices and communicating with each other on radios and cell phones.
The company evaluated the loss at about NZ$7.1 million (£4.1 million) while the police valued it at a much higher amount. Samsung also said that most costs could be covered by insurance.
The company’s manufacturing facility Samsung Eletronica da Amazonia said in a statement that the police are investigating the incident and it is fully cooperating to resolve the issue. Samsung also said that while it is regrettable, it was fortunate that there were no casualties involved in the incident.
There were no suspects initially; however, a little later the police said that they have a few suspects with no mention of further details. The devices that were robbed included tablet computers, laptops and mobile phones.
