Hackers unlock Gig Harbor escape room’s secrets, demand cash
Aug 17, 2024, 12:14 PM | Updated: 12:25 pm
A wildly successful Gig Harbor escape room was hit by cyber thieves last month. (Photo courtesy of James Lynch, KIRO Newsradio)
(Photo courtesy of James Lynch, KIRO Newsradio)
For the past nine years, Kelsy Matteson has run the wildly successful Escape Hour escape room in Gig Harbor. Then last month, it was all put at risk, when a hacker let his presence be known.
“He said, I’ll just cut to the chase; I need money,” Matteson told KIRO Newsradio on Friday. “I just want to show you I’ve been able to get your intellectual property. He had everything, the layout of the experience, what props we have, puzzles, the codes, everything. We’re like how in the world can he even have this.”
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Matteson said the hacker got into one of their email accounts. He communicated hiding behind a VPN, which made finding him nearly impossible.
Matteson contacted Gig Harbor police, and an investigation was opened, but Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey told KIRO Newsradio, there just wasn’t much they could do. So, they transferred the case to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Matteson hopes IC-3, as it’s known, will be able to track the hacker, but she’s not optimistic, and there’s a lot at stake.
“You can sell escape rooms,” Matteson said. “So, if that’s out there, and everybody has it, that literally takes away our ability to sell that, ever. So, if we had to rebuild it, it would be $40,000 to $50,000, but you have to take into account lost revenue on that. So, losses could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The hacker sent the stolen information to all of Escape Hour’s competitors, potentially giving them a competitive advantage.
“Intellectual property is a big deal, right, because we created all this and to give it to our competitors … and what was kind of disheartening is do you think any of our competitors called and told us that they got this? They didn’t,” Matteson said.
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Anyone with information about the crime can contact the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center or Gig Harbor Police at 253-851-2236, citing incident #2416301851.2.
James Lynch is a reporter at KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of James’ stories here. Follow James on X, or email him here.
