The great koi heist began with the thieves handing out a business card.
The two neatly dressed men in khakis and white shirts showed up at a business park in the Herndon, Virginia, area in early June, saying they were with an aquatic care company and had come to remove sick fish from a pond, one person familiar with the incident said.
They spoke knowledgeably about koi carp and worked diligently, using large nets over four days to haul in the brightly colored fish, which are popular with Dell and Northrop Grumman workers who eat lunch around the pond.