Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom fan takes up job at a delivery company to play the game early, gets busted by their mom

Two Japanese workers allegedly infiltrated a delivery company to steal copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before launch.

As originally reported by Japanese publication Bunshun (and translated by Automaton Media), two Japanese youths reportedly started working at an Amazon subcontractor earlier this year. The pair started working at the delivery company a month before Tears of the Kingdom launched, as part of a plan to steal and play the game before launch on May 12.

The two employees were then meant to assist with the delivery of copies of Tears of the Kingdom right before launch but were nowhere to be found. A boss at the company then called one of their mothers and was told they were at home playing a game. This game turned out to be Tears of the Kingdom, which they had allegedly stolen from the delivery company.

One of the employees then confessed to stealing the game, and to it being a deliberate and premeditated act. The other employee, meanwhile, confessed to stealing not just Tears of the Kingdom, but other Zelda products, like the special edition Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, in order to sell them on and net a profit.

The employees were then both reportedly fired from their jobs at the subcontractor, which is basically the least you'd expect from this case. They were also apparently made to reimburse the company for all the items they'd stolen while working there, which is the ultimate case of fucking about and finding out.

It's wild that one of the culprits literally just sat at home playing Tears of the Kingdom, and hoped their mother wouldn't snitch on them. They would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for that pesky mother! Well, probably not, but we can imagine.

Apparently, this sort of thing happens a lot more than you'd think, in Japan at least. An unnamed source at the delivery subcontractor says this often happens with part-time staffers coming and going relatively quickly, which makes it really hard to track down who's stolen what. Damn, maybe this pair really would've gotten away with it if not for their mother.

Check out our best Zelda Tears of the Kingdom armor sets guide if you're looking to track down some of the best gear in the game.