The latest in a string of thefts from Apple stores happened earlier this week, as a brazen “pack” of thieves snatched 19 iPhones worth around $13,000 from a busy Apple retail store in Natick, Mass., police spokesman Lt. Cara Rossi said.
According to a post on the department’s Facebook page, the group may be connected to a similar theft in Hingham last week.
A video of the incident was posted to the Natick Police Department’s official Facebook page on Thursday. The unidentified thieves, said to be a group of seven individuals believed to be teens or young men or women, wearing hoodies, can be seen entering the mall at around 7:15PM, and heading straight for the Apple store.
The suspects then entered the store, and gathered around the iPhone display tables, which are located near the store’s entrance. At some unseen signal, they ripped the iPhones from the display tables’ security tethers, and ran out of the store with them. The whole thing, from entrance to the mall to running away with the iPhones, took just a little over a minute and half.
This is the latest in a series of thefts from Apple retail stores around the U.S. Most recently, bad actors in New York City disguised themselves as Apple employees, in order to gain access to the repair shop in the back of the store. June saw other NYC stores hit, with 19 iPhones going missing from the SoHo store, and the Upper West Side Apple store being hit by thieves twice this year, winding up down a total of 67 iPhones.
In July, Chicagoland Apple retail stores were the target of a band of thieves who purchased Apple products from the Chicago-area Apple Stores using stolen identities and credit cards. Six New York residents were arrested and charged for their part in that scheme.
Recently, it was reported that Apple was removing the tethers from iPhone display units in some stores, to allow customers to get a better idea of how the device fit in their hand, and allow them to try various cases on the device.
(Via AppleInsider)
