FYI Hot Wheels theft

nationalzero.com/2026/01/04/massive-hot-wheels-heist-investigated-by-washington-sheriff/

The Grant County, Washington Sheriff's Office Crime Reduction Team are asking for the public's help in solving the massive heist of as many as 400 Hot Wheels cars stolen from a storage unit in Lakeview, the Columbia Basin Herald reports. Around half of the stolen miniature vehicles were still in their original packaging, raising the chilling possibility they could be trafficked to buyers on eBay.

The brazen December 27 heist was not the only storage unit collectible crime in the county last week, as on the 31st the renter of a unit in Cascade Valley reported that between 60 and 80 tiny little soldiers and "orcs" used to play the Warhammer tabletop strategy game had been stolen in a burglary. Unclear is if the miniatures were of the original, medieval fantasy-themed Warhammer or the Warhammer 40,000 variant – which is the same thing except it's like an intergalactic space version where they have spaceships and laser guns – or a mix of miniatures from both sub-brands.

No connection between the heists has been established and it would be surprising if the burglaries were the work of the same individual or crew given the separate, disparate markets of adult collectors of the toy brands: dorks who think the Fast and Furious movies are good and dweebs with mounted magnifying glasses used to painstakingly stroke little dabs of acrylic paint onto tiny merch-armored soldiers using fine brushes made from the tail hairs of a species of weasel native to Siberia.