I am acquainted with someone who was a TSR staffer during the time period in question (my wife is friends with his wife). He still has his OB3 copy. Since he hasn't worked for TSR in years he might be willing to tell us what he knows. Since it would probably be a few days before I could contact him, does anybody have any good questions that I should ask?  :?:

BTW, it could be that he doesn't know anything. He was a writer but not involved in the production of the OB3. I just thought that it couldn't hurt to ask.  

Okay, I've talked to my staffer acquaintance but I'm afraid he can't shed much light on the matter. His name is Mike Price and he was employed by TSR from '80 to '83. He worked in Design and Development and was involved in the creation of 2nd ed. Gamma World, among others.

Mike doesn't remember who obtained his copy for him (after all, it was over 20 years ago!), but he says that everyone in his department knew that the OB3 would be a collector's item so everyone made sure they kept a copy or two. He recalls that there around "a couple dozen" people in his department at the time.

Since the anonymous warehouse staffer mentioned earlier said, "there were several copies floating around, and not in the editorial or creative offices", and Mike confirms that there were 24-48 (or more) copies scored by the denizens of the creative offices, I think it is safe to assume that there was more than 1 case lifted that day.

Anyway, sorry I couldn't find out more.