With all the talk these days about “wealth inequality”, it isn’t surprising to us that some people might take it upon themselves to adopt a very Robin Hood outlook on life. Steal from the rich, give to the poor and all that. And what could be easier to rob than a faceless, multinational corporation like General Motors?

Alas, the long arm of the law has finally caught up with seven individuals who are now being accused as the masterminds behind the Holden engine theft ring in Australia. The Australian reports that over a two-year period, a band of thieves stole around $2 million worth of high-performance LSx V8 engines and transmissions. Of the seven individuals, just one worked at a GM Holden plant. The rest were apparently involved in selling the engines and then laundering the money. Police say the accused stole 140 V8 engines and 175 heavy-duty transmissions of both the automatic and manual variety. The parts were mostly sold via eBay, email, and word-of-mouth.

It’s hard to believe that even a company as huge as GM wouldn’t notice 140 engines missing, and that it took authorities two years to catch up with the criminals. Apparently all that tipped them off was finding two still-in-the-crate engines at another, unrelated crime scene. Police have managed to recover 30 engines, and have asked anybody who bought an engine under sketchy circumstances to call the police, as they are in possession of stolen property.

Ya, we’re sure folks will get right on that…