The China Customs Office reveals that it recently foiled the plans of a smuggler who attempted to enter the country with 160 Intel’s best gaming CPUs attached to their body. Referred to as the ‘Walking CPU’, the man tried to circumvent customs by moving through the ‘no declaration channel’, but caught the eye of officials due to their “abnormal” walking posture.
Further details on the incident can be found on the government agency’s weibo page (via Videocardz), which reveal that the smuggler was primarily carrying 11th and 12th Gen Intel Core processors on their calf, waist, and abdomen. He was also packing 16 foldable mobile phones, but it’s unclear what plans the man had for this small treasure trove of tech.
This isn’t the first time smugglers have tried and failed to outsmart China’s customs by strapping Intel CPUs to their bodies, nor is it likely to be the last. This kind of subterfuge isn’t limited to processors either, as just last year people attempted to sneak GPUs, RAM, and SSDs past Chinese officials via speedboats.
The lengths some will go to in order to get their hands on gaming PC hardware really is barmy, with a truckload of EVGA RTX 3000 GPUs recently finding themselves at the centre of a Fast & Furious style heist.
However, with graphics cards finally getting cheaper in the wake of a declining cryptocurrency market, we might not see anything quite as extraordinary for quite some time.