Now that Korean smartphone maker Samsung's phones have caught up in price and prestige to the once dominant California tech company Apple's iPhone, the gadgets are more coveted and, sadly, more susceptible to theft. Even so, nothing the scope of what took place in the early morning hours on Monday in Sao Paolo could ever have been predicted.

Reports revealed that about two dozen men armed with submachine guns actually took control of a Samsung factory in the rural countryside of the Sao Paulo state, which is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of Brazil. The men pulled off a very smooth operation, leading to suspicions of organized crime, as they entered pretending to be staff.

The group responsible for what the media is calling a heist was never violent at any point, only disabling the factory worker's phones in order to stop them from notifying the authorities. It was reported that many factory workers even continued working as the group of armed bandits loaded seven trucks full of expensive hardware including tablets, smart phones and notebooks.

ZDNet has compared the raid on one of Samsung's key manufacturing plants to that of the 1978 Lufthansa heist made famous by Martin Scorsese's film "Goodfellas." This kind of organized strike is unprecedented for manufacturers, who until now have not considered placing armed security at their warehouses. Perhaps they will have to now that electronics have so much market value that it's almost like guarding a bank or vault.

The thieves got away with upwards of $36 million worth of technology. It seems the stunt was very well planned since it coincided exactly with the FIFA World Cup, which almost certainly has distracted everyone in an official capacity in the country not to mention the people themselves, locals and tourists alike.

Samsung released a statement, saying, "We are very concerned about this incident. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. We are fully cooperating with the ongoing police investigation, and we will do our best to avoid it happening again."