Home Gaming The great big Steam Heist – How one man walked out of Valve HQ with stolen consoles, games, and Gabe Newell’s minigun

The great big Steam Heist – How one man walked out of Valve HQ with stolen consoles, games, and Gabe Newell’s minigun

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It was the perfect crime. Over at Valve’s Bellevue headquarters, one Shawn Shaputis had put together a plan that would enable him to break into the famed digital distribution company’s building and walk out with anything he could possibly get his hands on. The CD-ROM containing a janky half-built version of Half-Life 2: Episode 3? His for the taking. The schedule for Steam sales which could be ransomed to desperate clickbait-hungry websites looking to get a scoop? Right there, waiting to be pilfered and stored next to a business card with my contact details on them.

Shaputis instead went after more lucrative items that could easily be flipped on the video game black market, a hive of scum and villainy that trades in rare items such as locks of John Romero’s hair and while I’m making this bit up I would be not be surprised if it actually exists.

Using a cunning scheme of entering the Steam building through a “non-functioning stairwell door” according to Polygon, Saputis then ransacked the building several times as he stole games, equipment and video game consoles. In one return trip, Shaputis even managed to grab a few Nintendo Switch consoles, Steam machines and Newell’s prop minigun that was used in a 2011 Forbes magazine photoshoot.

So how did Shaputis walk out of Steam HQ with all of his ill-gotten booty? Did he employ a small squad of attractive actors, each one a specialist in a certain field, to help cause a distraction and give him a window of opportunity to scarper out of harm’s way? Not exactly. The burglar merely tossed everything he’d illegally acquired into a big rubbish bin on the 11th floor that Steam occupies, and then just walked out of the building with everyone inside being none the wiser, pocketing an estimate of $40,000 worth of stuff.

Police eventually caught Shaputis, with an official charge being laid against him last month for the great big Steam heist and numerous other burglaries such as making off like a bandit with an entire FedEx truck in 2018 and leading the thin blue line on a not so merry chase.

Last Updated: October 9, 2019

14 Comments

  1. It was a bold move, Cotton, too bad he couldn’t pull it off properly.

    Reply

  2. Kromas

    October 9, 2019 at 09:05

    He should have stolen the items in three trips. Valve would never have been able to catch him.

    Reply

  3. HairyEwok

    October 9, 2019 at 10:31

    It sucks that he was caught, I guess he just didn’t have enough steam.

    Reply

  4. Jacques Van Zyl

    October 9, 2019 at 09:49

    Can somebody please make a Payday 2 mod of this heist?

    Reply

    • HairyEwok

      October 9, 2019 at 10:31

      And have Bain moan in my ears every 2 seconds to hack Gabe’s PC for Half-Life episode 3? NO WAY, that’s torture.

      Reply

    • HairyEwok

      October 9, 2019 at 10:31

      And have Bain moan in my ears every 2 seconds to hack Gabe’s PC for Half-Life episode 3? NO WAY, that’s torture.

      Reply

      • Jacques Van Zyl

        October 9, 2019 at 10:31

        There’s a mod to make Bain shut up – problem solved. Not that I use that mod, I have no friends to play this with so I appreciate “someone” at least talking to me.

        Locke is my damn favourite with his trash South African accent.

        Reply

        • HairyEwok

          October 9, 2019 at 10:38

          I also play solo, but only because i prefer the stealth missions more, and i have trust issues when it comes to games and trusting others not to screw things up XD

          Reply

          • Jacques Van Zyl

            October 9, 2019 at 10:38

            The stealth option is such a blast! Best feeling when I manage those perfect stealth runs. I hate having my lobby public only for a Infamy 20 person to come and ruin my stealth.

            I’m having some issues now with the storyline (trying to grind to level 100) where I can’t complete the missions solo.

          • HairyEwok

            October 9, 2019 at 10:46

            Since you do modding, why not get the better AI mod, it helps a ton with the loud missions, they interact and turn guards if they have the perk. It’s like having teammates that actually know what their doing with aimbot.

          • Jacques Van Zyl

            October 9, 2019 at 10:46

            I don’t actually have any mods installed, but it might be worth looking into.

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