Original story

CrimeNews 12.11.2017

40 stolen birch-laminate gene chairs found in Glasgow market - thousands of patented Pentik chairs still unaccounted for

Police in Glasgow have found some of the gene-chairs stolen last winter from a Finnish grower’s fields on sale in a waterfront market. Police were tipped off about the chairs by a designer attending a congress in the city, who recognized the patented Pentik model while out shopping for souvenirs.

Following the discovery and the arrest of two persons at the market stall, Glasgow police have been able to piece together the route taken by the chairs from Finland to Scotland. Apparently they were carried last December from the fields to a disused barn some miles away, where they were stored until the thieves felt the coast was clear, when they were taken by road to the port of Pori on the Gulf of Bothnia. Here they were loaded onto a ship and carried to Poland. Somewhere in the Gdansk region the chairs were then dried and given a careful surface treatment, in other words polishing and varnishing by hand.

The original heist was a very professional operation. The thieves chose an overcast December night, in order to thwart satellite surveillance. After the removal of the chairs, the gang covered the fields with large sheets of camouflage sheeting that appeared from the sky to be a snow-covered field of chairs. Europol believes that the group financing the operation was the so-called Chili League, an international gang that has derived its nickname from dealing in “hot” goods. A total of nearly 10,000 chairs went missing in December. The raid on the Glasgow market produced 40 of them. In all, the value of the stolen goods was upwards of EUR 1 million.

Police are now appealing to people in England and Scotland to be on the lookout for more of the chairs. They are relatively easy to recognize, as the models have been displayed in several media. The chairs are designed by the genetech staff of the firm of Pentik, and are based on a standard curly silver birch (Betula pendula carelica) stem, in which a patented Pentik gene controls the shaping of the chair according to a preset design. The stolen batch were the first crop after completion of field trials, and the farmer had been cultivating the gene-chairs already for five years.

Furniture items are becoming an extremely popular genetech item. This may only be a passing fad, but at least the Pentik designers believe that the “natural” yet exotic nature of genetically-manipulated tables and chairs will ensure their popularity for a good while to come.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 3/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2012–2022
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, mutta rajatusti
  • Ilmiön ydin: kasvien kasvua ohjataan niin, että niistä syntyy käyttövalmiita huonekaluja tai biomateriaalisia designesineitä.

Puita muotoillaan eläviksi rakenteiksi, huonekaluja kasvatetaan muoteissa ja sienirihmastosta sekä kasvikuiduista tehdään designesineitä. Geenituoleista ei tullut suurta teollisuutta, mutta kasvatetun esineen periaate toteutui.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui kokeellisena biodesignina oikeassa aikaikkunassa.