Star Wars Galaxies: Virtual Crimes = Real Crimes?

I was reading the net on my break here at work and i came accross this article on the BBC NEWS. It is a interesting piece on MMORPG crimes, and what is being done about them. Here is a snippet:

The problems of online crime are made more serious by the growing numbers of people making a living from trading items from the games.

A game account that gives someone control of a powerful character can change hands for thousands of pounds. Even single powerful magic items can command a hefty price.

So given that virtual items, mere bits in a datastream, can be shown to have real world value is it about time that the police started to be called in to investigate some of these crimes?

I say MMORPG dev's need to be more responsible for what happens in their games, but i don think govt intervention is needed...Yet.