$1.7 million of BlackBerry PlayBooks stolen while being transported

A trucker transporting 22 pallets of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet valued at $1.7 million, stopped at a truck stop west of I-69 to eat and shower. After showering, the driver went back to the location where he had parked the semi-tractor trailer only to find it missing along with the PlayBook tablets. The driver was transporting the tablets from the Bright Point Distribution center in Plainfield to Ontario, Canada. Besides the BlackBerry devices being shipped, the driver said he had a computer, credit cards and clothing in the truck.

Police investigating the theft, which took place at the Pilot Travel Center off State Road 67, were told that the truck did not have any tracking equipment. Local police have contacted the FBI. The officer who wrote up the report, Mike Milbourn, said that in his experience, stolen electronics like the BlackBerry PlayBook often end up in the Miami area.

The joke might be on the perps because the first BlackBerry tablet just has not been selling well and has been the recipient of a number of price cuts. Additionally, clues found in the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 suggest that a new model with a higher resolution display and 4G LTE support could be on the way. The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to get a firmware update sometime in February which will take care of some gaps that RIM left on the tablet when it was originally launched such as the lack of a calendar and an e-mail application.

If you are in the South Florida area, don't be surprised if some shady characters come up to you, trying to sell you a BlackBerry PlayBook at a great price. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch so you might want to assume that the tablet they want to sell you is hot.

source: MiamiHerald