'Sophisticated' armed robbers hit Fremont high-tech company

Technically, this is not directly about Intel, but I guess it could have
just as easily happened to them... ?

From Unigen's website:

=======================
Unigen Corporation, founded in 1991, is a leader in the design and
manufacture of OEM memory, DC-DC power converter, wired and wireless
communication, and flash solutions.

Unigen supplies silicon, modules, and services to leading clients in the
PC, server, networking, telecommunications, imaging, medical, defense,
and mobile computing industries.

Unigen's core competency is the design and manufacture of precise and
complex standard and custom module products.
=======================

It's not clear to me if they actually make anything that's retail-boxed
and ready to sell on the black market.

Any ideas?


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http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_17504429

'Sophisticated' armed robbers hit Fremont high-tech company

By Chris De Benedetti
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 02/28/2011 03:44:07 PM PST
Updated: 02/28/2011 06:47:25 PM PST

FREMONT -- A sophisticated team of 15 robbers armed with rifles and
handguns, wearing masks and matching black clothing, tied up five
employees of a high-tech manufacturer Sunday morning and stole a
"significant amount" of computer components, police said.

No injuries were reported, and no arrests have been made, Sgt. Chris
Mazzone said.

The robbers arrived at Unigen Corp., on Warm Springs Boulevard near
Interstate in 680 in south Fremont, a little after 8:40 a.m.

Within minutes, the team of thieves forced the employees to hand over
their wallets and cell phones, and then to lie down while blindfolded,
tied up and gagged, police said.

One of the employees told police that he could hear the men loading
items onto a truck.

The company's surveillance video showed "all the suspects got into a
large moving-company-type truck at 9:11 a.m. and left," Mazzone said.

One employee got free a few minutes later, and called police, who
arrived at 9:17 a.m., Mazzone said.

Police on Monday still were unsure what exactly was stolen.

"It could be processors, microchips, anything like that," Mazzone said.
"We're still waiting for an inventory report, and they'll be going
through their stuff today."

Founded in 1991 as a manufacturer of memory module solutions for
high-tech equipment, Unigen also has offices in Taiwan, Shanghai,
Malaysia and Vietnam, according to its website.

"There's a police investigation going on so we cannot comment," a Unigen
employee said Monday when asked about the robbery. The employee also
declined to identify herself.

Authorities said this type of sophisticated, high-tech robbery has
occurred before in Fremont, but it has been several years.

"It looks as if they're operating as a ring," Mazzone said. "In the
past, loose-knit informal rings from Southern California have come up to
an area, commit a number of thefts over a day or two, and then leave."

With the robbers' masks and matching clothing, all witnesses could
provide for a suspect description was "15 males of unknown race,"
authorities said.

"Typically, these are disciplined, professional people," Mazzone said.
"My feeling is, with the sophistication they showed, this was a targeted
operation."