Irvine Police Seek Links in Computer Chip Robberies
Irvine police on Thursday were investigating whether an armed raid on an Irvine computer chip company late Tuesday is related to other chip heists in the state, particularly a pair that took place in Los Angeles earlier this spring.
On separate occasions in March and April, armed men struck two Los Angeles electronics companies, taking more than $1.5 million worth of memory chips in each case, police said.
Lee Roberts, a Santa Ana insurance investigator who has worked on both cases, said the two robberies resembled the one Tuesday evening at Centon Electronics, in which a gang of 10 to 13 armed men held three employees at gunpoint and drove away with computer memory parts worth at least $5 million.
Sgt. Phil Povey of the Irvine Police Department’s economic crimes unit said the department also will compare leads to similar cases, both in Los Angeles and in the Bay Area.
The total could soar as high as $12 million by the time the losses are fully calculated, police said.
Companies that handle the memory chips have been hit by bandits repeatedly over the years, with several big thefts coming in 1989 at Western Digital and AST Research Inc.
Tuesday night’s robbery was believed to the largest theft of computer chips in the U.S., FBI officials said.
In the wake of the armed raid, county technology companies, insurers and trade associations are taking increased security measures.
Executives at several Irvine chip companies described changing passwords on locks and hiring additional guards to deter robbers. Worried that their own firms could be targeted, however, they asked that the names of their firms not be printed.
Insurance companies, which also have been hit hard by the claims that follow the thefts, are organizing companies to help them trace stolen parts together with the American Electronics Assn., a national trade group.
The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, based in Warren, N.J., is contributing $300,000 over the next three years to help start the foundation, and plans an organizing meeting in Los Angeles next month.
In 1994, Chubb paid $15 million in claims to high-technology companies for losses from thefts, robberies and shipments, and has paid out $5 million for similar claims so far this year, said William Barr, an assistant vice president of technical services for the firm’s Northern California division.
