What Doesn’t Stay In Vegas: Two Razer Prototypes Stolen During CES Teardown

For us at Techgage, this year’s CES has proven to be one of the busiest ever, so we’re leaving the gambling and entertainment mecca excited for the year ahead. Some have been hit with worse luck, though, such as Razer, which had not just one, but two of its prototypes stolen by some enterprising douchebag.

On his public Facebook page, Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan said that his company is working with show management and law enforcement to help track down who ran off with its gear, and we can’t imagine that the culprit isn’t on one of the myriad cameras that litter the Las Vegas Convention Center.

If there’s any upside to this attack at all, it’s that the theft occurred after the show ended, during the tear-down process. However, it’s likely due to the tear-down process that someone is best able to strike, as people are scurrying everywhere and even if someone saw someone else taking something, it might not be obvious that it’s actually a theft.

We’re not sure if Tan is being a wee bit too hasty in jumping to conclusions, but in his Facebook post, he insinuates that it could have been a competitor that took the company’s exceptionally rare equipment. We’re not sure what kind of person would risk going to jail for their company, but in Tan’s favor, most regular people are not going to care that much about stealing half-finished products. He writes:

At Razer, we play hard and we play fair. Our teams worked months on end to conceptualize and develop these units and we pride ourselves in pushing the envelope to deliver the latest and greatest.

We treat theft/larceny, and if relevant to this case, industrial espionage, very seriously – it is cheating, and cheating doesn’t sit well with us. Penalties for such crimes are grievous and anyone who would do this clearly isn’t very smart.

Despite the theft, Razer appeared to have an incredible CES, with its Project Valerie notebook catching a lot of people’s attention – including ours. We wish Razer luck in tracking down the thief or thieves.