In a nutshell: Panic just recovered nearly $400,000 worth of Playdate handhelds stolen earlier this year. The company found the loot consisting of about 45 boxes on Thursday in front of an unfinished restaurant in North Las Vegas.
The true crime drama started when FedEx misdelivered a shipment of around 2,000 Playdates. Instead of dropping them off at Panic's fulfillment center, the driver unloaded the cargo at a nearby construction site. Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser informed the press of the incident during a March Q&A session at GDC 2024.
Sasser said employees didn't notice the missing units until doing inventory sometime after the misdelivery. FedEx representatives told management that records showed the driver dropped off the parcels successfully. A similar thing had happened with a previous shipment, so employees checked the mistaken location. However, nothing was there.
"It's a bit of a true crime drama," Sasser remarked.
More details --- and likely a very good Playdate Podcast episode --- in the future. For now, this was our best possible outcome, the result of lots of time and detective work. (Which, ok fine, we enjoyed.)
– Playdate (@playdate) May 30, 2024
The real question is, can we sell these as a limited edition? Playdate Hot™
At that point, most companies might have written it off as a loss and moved on, but as a small company, half a million dollars in stolen merchandise is a huge deal, and it's legally considered grand theft, so Panic wasn't going to let it go so quickly.
Presumably, the company notified Las Vegas Police, but there is only so much the police can do, and these types of incidents – porch piracy on a grand scale – tend to be back burnered for lack of physical leads. So Panic did some sleuthing on its own and, eventually, got the thief/thieves to return the shipment to a restaurant near its fulfillment center. The company tweeted photos of the returned goods showing the unfinished restaurant with Panic's warehouse in the background (above).
Hey who said no boxes were opened and no Playdate systems were missing or sold? More on that in the inevitable podcast/write-up, as it's a crucial part of how we got these back!
– Playdate (@playdate) May 31, 2024
Panic's X post was vague regarding the details of its investigation and how it got the bandit to return the property mostly intact. It did note that some boxes were opened and missing contents. It also claimed it knew that at least a few Playdates were sold. The company promised it would share all the details in an upcoming podcast.
Losing half a million dollars and recovering most of it later is a stressful rollercoaster ride. Still, Playdate admitted that it "enjoyed" its detective work and joked that it should consider rebranding the stolen units as Playdate Hot Limited Edition.
"For now, this was our best possible outcome, the result of lots of time and detective work, (Which, ok fine, we enjoyed)," it admitted. "The real question is, can we sell these as a limited edition? Playdate Hot"
Panic somehow recovered $400,000 of stolen Playdate handhelds after botched delivery
