A North American arcade operator has reported over $25,000 worth of items stolen recently, sparking a heartfelt campaign to recover the missing items.
Charlie Mosley, owner of the Seattle-based Gamecenter arcade, found that his truck was missing one morning last week. Contained within were two arcade machines and a selection of other components, the total worth of which is estimated to be between $25,000 and $40,000.
"On Wednesday, our 26' box truck with tens of thousands of dollars in PCBs, arcade cabs, tools, and more was stolen from us," says the arcade's owner on social media. "With the help of social media, the truck was spotted and retrieved, though almost the entire truck was emptied, which devastated us."
Action Button video producer Christa Lee, who works as fleet manager at the arcade's events division, 100 Yen Life, has posted a plea online for people in the area to be wary of anyone selling arcade components and other related items.
She has highlighted that the stolen items include artwork and PCBs, and that if anyone in the Seattle area sees someone "offloading a ton of CPS2/NAOMI/Neo Geo PCBs, stuff of that nature," they should get in touch.
As noted in the news report above, the items are so obscure that it's unlikely they can be sold via traditional means; only collectors will be aware of their real value.