Robbers Make Off With a Truckload of RTX 30-Series GPUs

Gamers hoping to score an RTX 30-Series GPU have so far had to battle with bots, miners, and scalpers in their quest to buy a new GPU, and now we can add one more enemy to the list: highway robbers.

In a post on the EVGA forums, Product Manager Jacob Freeman wrote that one of the company’s shipments of EVGA RTX 30-series graphics cards was recently stolen from a truck en route from San Francisco to its Southern California Distribution Center. We have no way of knowing if the entire truck’s contents were taken, or how many GPUs constitute a “shipment,” but it’s just another sign of the times that GPUs are so valuable people would pull off a seemingly brazen plan to snag a batch of them.

Freeman noted the shipment contained cards with values ranging from, “$329.99 up to $1959.99 MSRP,” so it sounds like the shipment contained the entirety of the RTX lineup, from the midrange RTX 3060 all the way up to the flagship RTX 3080 Ti. It’s unclear if they were stolen from a parked truck, or if it was a Heat scenario where well-trained GPU mercenaries wearing hockey masks rammed the truck and knocked it over, then removed the back door with military-grade explosives. That said, since Freeman didn’t indicate any of the GPU couriers were injured, we can assume the truck was probably broken into when left unattended, but there are no more details at this time as Freeman’s post is quite brief.

This is just another plot twist in the GPU shortage we’ve all been living through the past year or so, where expensive GPUs are practically impossible to find, at least at semi-normal pricing. Scalpers and crypto miners have sucked up all of the already-limited supply, making it impossible for actual gamers to get their hands on a new GPU. It’s even caused Newegg to implement a lottery just for the chance to pay full price, or more, for a new GPU, and they also typically bundle GPUs with expensive accessories like motherboards and monitors. It’s great if you’re building a new system, provided you don’t get a faulty power supply, but if you just want a lone GPU your options are sorely limited.