They stole $250,000 in Pierce County escape-room secrets to make money. It didn’t work
Editor’s note: This report is compiled from a recent Gig Harbor police report.
How much are escape-room secrets worth?
$250,000, according to a local company that reported its intellectual property stolen.
Officers responded to reported fraud at an escape-room business June 11 in the 3200 block of 50th Street Court in Gig Harbor.
The owner told police the thief who stole the company’s intellectual property was trying to sell it to other escape rooms in the area.
It appeared that someone hacked Google Docs with the information sometime between May 1 and May 17, the report said.
It’s possible that someone accessed an employee’s laptop while it was unattended, the report said.
The thief allegedly emailed the company a bizarre message that said the thief “found interesting files” while searching for ideas for a “choose your own adventure novel” the thief is writing.
The email said that the thief needed money, but that no one was willing to purchase the information, and therefore the thief was admitting defeat.
Instead, the thief allegedly expressed interest in profiting by using the information to rig bets on win times in escape-room competitions.
“Your move I guess,” the email ended.
Attached to it was valuable information about one of the escape-room scenarios, the police report said.
That email, and another sent to a competitor escape room in the area, allegedly didn’t demand a specific amount of money for the intellectual property. The thief also didn’t specify a method of payment.
Gig Harbor police Lt. Fred Douglas confirmed in an email to The News Tribune Aug. 1 that no one has been arrested.
He said he didn’t immediately have an update on the investigation, and that he would send The News Tribune’s inquiry about the case to the detectives’ division.
He wrote that the detectives are “both out right now and likely won’t be able to respond until the week of the 12th.”
