On September 21, 2026, early in the afternoon, two subcontracted forklift drivers pull pallets out of the freight warehouse at Guarulhos airport, near São Paulo. The cameras film them. A third employee clears the cargo in the electronic system, then a truck leaves the site without any hindrance. The Brazilian distributor Oderço puts these stolen RTX 5090 cards at about 2.5 million reais at purchase price, close to $470,000. A month later, it was a serial number, readable in the photos of a small classified ad, that tied part of the batch to the theft.
Stolen RTX 5090 cards: what the Guarulhos cameras show
The account rests on the police file, reported by Canaltech (Raphael Giannotti, October 22) and by TechSpot (Rob Thubron, October 23). According to Outer Space, the Zotac cards, imported from the United States, reached Guarulhos on September 20. The next day, two operators from a subcontractor move the pallets without authorization toward the exit area. A third employee clears them in the cargo terminal system, and the boxes go into a truck.
The complaint was filed only on September 24, three days after the events, at the Deatur, the police station that receives tourists at the airport. The Federal Police and the São Paulo State Civil Police now investigate together, and three employees are targeted. One calendar detail complicates the case: according to Hardware.com.br, the Brazilian tax authority (the Receita Federal) only authorized the release of the cargo on September 25, four days after the exit caught on camera.
Another lead is circulating. According to the channel Jornal da Band, cited by Outer Space, an internal inquiry by the airport operator indicates the employees may not have taken part willingly: the goods labels were reportedly swapped, which would have let a truck cleared to collect a cheaper cargo leave with the batch of cards. No source consulted confirms this hypothesis, and the police have not commented on it.
One pallet or two, an unknown number of cards
The sources disagree on the volume. Canaltech, citing the Civil Police, speaks of a single 423 kg pallet. Hardware.com.br, TechSpot and the daily O Povo speak of two pallets. Outer Space gives almost half a tonne for the whole, which fits the 423 kg without saying how many pallets carried it. The number of cards has never been disclosed, neither by Oderço nor by the police. As for the 2.5 million reais, it is a purchase price: the resale value is higher.
Oderço, based in Maringá, in Paraná, says it had never seen an imported cargo vanish in 38 years in business, according to O Povo. The distributor published a statement on Instagram on October 16. Mixed News (Chris Steven, October 22) sums it up this way: the company does not want to stay silent, for lack of answers. That wording is Mixed News’s, not a quote from the statement. According to Outer Space, Oderço only received official confirmation that the cargo remained missing on October 14.
A serial number on an OLX ad
One of the stolen RTX 5090 cards appeared on October 7 on OLX, a Brazilian classifieds site, in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste (São Paulo State). The ad offered a Zotac RTX 5090 Solid OC with 32 GB, first at 34,000 reais, then at 32,000 reais, about $6,000. Hardware.com.br gives these details drawing on VideoCardz. It was Jornal da Band that matched the serial number to the Oderço batch, according to Outer Space. TechSpot calls it possibly « a monumentally stupid error »: the seller’s photos showed the number very clearly. The ad has since been taken down.
What do we know about the seller? The accounts diverge. According to Jornal da Band, reported by Outer Space, a 26-year-old man living in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste was arrested, then released after the custody hearing. He reportedly said he had bought the cards online to resell them, and deleted the ad when he saw the news report. Hardware.com.br adds, citing the Diário de Justiça (the courts’ official gazette), that he presented purchase documents from Mercado Livre for about 26,450 reais, and that the card was running in his computer. That last detail appears only in Hardware.com.br. Outer Space notes that other cards from the batch showed up in ads on a social network, and that most of the cargo is still missing. No arrest for the theft itself has been reported.
The ad price, cross-checked
To put a figure on these stolen RTX 5090 cards, the conversions below follow the source’s implied rate: 2.5 million reais for $470,000, about $0.19 per real. In Brazil, O Povo, citing VideoCardz, places RTX 5090 cards between 33,000 and 39,000 reais, about $6,200 to $7,300. The ad at 32,000 reais was therefore barely under that range. The 26,450 reais the seller claims to have paid, about $5,000, sit 20% below the bottom of the range. In the United States, TechSpot notes that most retailers list more than $9,300 and that no 5090 is offered on Nvidia’s own store.
Our reading: the price was nothing like a deal too good to be true, and it was the serial number that betrayed the card. TechSpot recalls thefts of Ampere cards in 2020, 2021 and 2022, when RTX 3090 cards sold for $2,000 to $2,500. The most expensive card of the moment draws thieves, and the 5090 now costs more than three times as much. Nvidia denied ending production, as we reported in our article on prices that stay crazy.
Buying a used 5090: what the case changes
On October 22, Oderço Matos, the distributor’s president, announced in an Instagram video that the serial numbers of the missing cards had been invalidated. They lose their warranty in Brazil and abroad, report Outer Space and Hardware.com.br. A good-faith buyer then inherits a card with no warranty that the police can seize, like the one belonging to the man from Santa Bárbara d’Oeste. The sources consulted mention no public database for checking a serial number.
For anyone shopping the used market, three habits follow from these facts. Ask for a sharp photo of the serial number before any payment. Demand the original invoice, and refuse a lot with no paperwork at a price close to new. A used 5090 is also judged by its power supply: the melted connector on an MSI RTX 5090 Vanguard shows what an original cable does not guarantee.
The investigation continues. GRU Airport, the airport operator, says it reported the disappearance to the authorities and advised the importer on how to claim compensation. The case is now in the hands of the police and Oderço’s insurer, and most of the stolen RTX 5090 cards are still missing.
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