Thieves Steal Computer Chips Worth More Than Gold : Crime: Tens of millions of dollars worth of the high-tech chips are being taken; they will fetch more than drugs or precious metals.

Silicon Valley is headquarters not only to numerous high-tech companies and research groups.

Thieves also are making themselves at home, plundering tens of millions of dollars worth of computer chips, which they have discovered can fetch more per ounce than drugs or precious metals.

A prime target: popular microprocessors about the size of poker chips.

“The computer chips are worth more than their weight in gold, and they’re a lot easier to carry,” said San Jose Police Sgt. Jim McMahn, head of the department’s high-tech-crime unit. “And there’s an organized network out there to buy them, even if they’re hot.”

For instance, one of Intel Corp.’s popular 486 chips has a street value of $1,000 to $1,700, according to police. A large duffle bag can--and in a recent California case, authorities suspect, did--hold $1 million worth.

“There’s a constant market for the stuff,” McMahn explained. “The crooks see a big payoff, and they know it’s hard to catch them. It’s hard to prove the chips are stolen. They don’t have serial numbers. And the companies who make them don’t track them after they’re out the door.”

Curt Codey, a detective with the nearby Fremont Police Department, began keeping track of computer-chip thefts two years ago, hoping to persuade his bosses to put more resources into cracking the growing number of cases.

He found that last year alone, more than $5 million in computer chips were stolen within his jurisdiction.

A 1989 insurance industry estimate put the statewide figure at $20 million.

“This whole thing has escalated dramatically since then,” said Codey, vice president of the High-Tech Crime Investigators Assn. of Northern California. “And we’re seeing more violence now.

“These crooks aren’t your average crooks, either. Usually, it’s someone who has worked in the computer field and knows what’s valuable. About half the time an employee is involved, giving away inside information on the best time to hit and where.”

In a recent Fremont case, a guard at a computer company was offered $50,000--two years’ salary--to leave a door open for one night.

“You have to give him credit; he told his supervisor and we were able to arrange a sting to make an arrest,” Codey said. “But to a lot of people, that money would be hard to turn down.”

Some other recent cases have included:

* The revelation that a 20-year-old man arrested in Florida was suspected of being part of a nationwide computer-chip and equipment-fencing ring. Detectives said they found computer invoices in his Porsche, equipped with a phone and fax. Police and the FBI say Craig Leslie Jacobsen admitted stealing $10 million worth of chips, computer circuit boards, computers and printers from companies from coast to coast as part of a larger fencing ring.

* A robbery by gun-toting thieves who bound an unarmed guard at Mylex Corp. in Fremont, then stole $300,000 worth of chips. Mylex has since installed motion detectors and hired guards to escort workers to cars at night. The company lost $1.5 million worth of chips in the past half year from burglaries.

“People will kill for these chips,” said Khaled Ibrahim, Mylex chief financial officer.