Apple's Covent Garden Retail Store Raided in Organized Motorbike Robbery

The CCTV may prove useful as although they won't have recordings of their faces at the Apple Store, they would be able to trace the bikes as they travelled through the city getting a good idea of where they ended up.


They should perhaps consider bollards in front of the windows. Those that lift up only at night and are concealed underground during the day. That way it wouldn't ruin the aesthetics of the store front during the day.

Consultant said:

Appearantly the thiefs don't realize that London is blanked in CCTV.

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Don't you mean "blanketed"?

Hmm...bikes aren't ideal for carrying bulky boxes of electronics. Did they steal floor demo models?

Defender2010 said:

Don't you mean "blanketed"?

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Just like he meant thieves instead of thiefs, I'm sure.

Antares said:

Hmm...bikes aren't ideal for carrying bulky boxes of electronics. Did they steal floor demo models?

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They sound like a bunch of idiots. Didn't they think to bring a van? How much can a moped rider carry? They'll probably make far less than £5K each once they divvy up the goods between riders and passengers. Then they'll do 6 months in jail. That's below minimum wage.

haydn! said:

They should perhaps consider bollards in front of the windows. Those that lift up only at night and are concealed underground during the day. That way it wouldn't ruin the aesthetics of the store front during the day.

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Bollards may stop a car or van, but I think they would be useless against motorcycles and mopeds!

I read somewhere that store display iPhones (and presumably 3G iPads) don't have SIM slots, so they won't be worth much

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Idiots.

rayray5884 said:

My first thought, 'You think they'd have a more elegant solution in place for boarding up the window.'

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Yeah right so when the window company gets a call in the middle of the night to secure some premised do they need to ask if the customer wants flake board or some nice wood panelling? Mahogany or Walnut?

ltcol266845 said:

Seems it's time for Apple to invent "Transparent Aluminum" (From Star Trek) so their stores can't be broken into as easily.

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I see, your certain no such metal has been in Apple's Chambers yet?

News update-

Several of the businesses in the local area have been targeted by the same gang in the past couple of months including, The Ray-Ban Store, Chanel, Vision Express and several high profile fashion stores. It appears to be the same gang using the same tactics, and it has been seen in some of the burglaries that they've no problem in harming the security on duty.

This isn't the first in the area and by no means the last, they drove a bike through two 4m high 2 inch thick glass doors and down a staircase in the ray-ban store in August...not cool, hope the cops catch the gits soon!

J

Where were the security guards-my local apple store has security guards sitting in the store from closing till they open again..

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raybanboy said:

Several of the businesses in the local area have been targeted by the same gang in the past couple of months including, The Ray-Ban Store, Chanel, Vision Express and several high profile fashion stores. It appears to be the same gang using the same tactics, and it has been seen in some of the burglaries that they've no problem in harming the security on duty.

This isn't the first in the area and by no means the last, they drove a bike through two 4m high 2 inch thick glass doors and down a staircase in the ray-ban store in August...not cool, hope the cops catch the gits soon!

J

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yes i agree not cool-these idiots need to be caught & fu#@ked up..

Heh, they should have waited for the iPhone 4S deliveries.

Here’s one thing the copycat Microsoft stores won’t have to worry about.

raybanboy said:

Several of the businesses in the local area have been targeted by the same gang in the past couple of months including, The Ray-Ban Store, Chanel, Vision Express and several high profile fashion stores. It appears to be the same gang using the same tactics, and it has been seen in some of the burglaries that they've no problem in harming the security on duty.

This isn't the first in the area and by no means the last, they drove a bike through two 4m high 2 inch thick glass doors and down a staircase in the ray-ban store in August...not cool, hope the cops catch the gits soon!

J

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^That sounds pretty bad-ass.

Well, you know the best thing to cure looting biker gangs right?

transparent aluminum?

doesn't every iPhone 4 already have AluminoSilicate glass? Sapphires are aluminum crystals, it already exists. Al2O3 I believe.

Apple can activate "Find my iPhone" and track the missing devices

Surely Apple have the serial numbers of the missing devices and are able to remotely activate "find my iPhone" and track them down through that or other methods like when they are activated/synced etc.

Someone in Australia stole an iPad and the owner/victim told the police exactly where it was - in the thiefs house, and they arrested him.

parish said:

I read somewhere that store display iPhones (and presumably 3G iPads) don't have SIM slots, so they won't be worth much

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I know that in the US they phones have SIM slots and cards, but the cards and IMEI numbers are logged and when someone tries activating it they'll be in deep you know what.

I doubt that anyone will try to activate a hot iPhone though.

Our stores don't have 3G iPads on display, so no need for a SIM.

haydn! said:

They should perhaps consider bollards in front of the windows. Those that lift up only at night and are concealed underground during the day. That way it wouldn't ruin the aesthetics of the store front during the day.

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In the Netherlands many businesses have security fences like this.
Still can look trough but very secure.

Digital Skunk said:

I know that in the US they phones have SIM slots and cards, but the cards and IMEI numbers are logged and when someone tries activating it they'll be in deep you know what.

I doubt that anyone will try to activate a hot iPhone though.

Our stores don't have 3G iPads on display, so no need for a SIM.

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Maybe in the US they track you but in many countries the police doesn't see this as a priority, even not in Europe, only when real crime is involved like drugs and murder they can track but even then they have to ask a Judge first.
Its petty crime and there is too much time involved to track stolen phones IMEI numbers.

bigjobby said:

What I'd like to know is where was this fella who was supposed to be camped outside that store for the iP4S launch.

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From the pictures, the window caved in is around the corner, and the farthest away from where he was camping.

justperry said:

Maybe in the US they track you but in many countries the police doesn't see this as a priority, even not in Europe, only when real crime is involved like drugs and murder they can track but even then they have to ask a Judge first.
Its petty crime and there is too much time involved to track stolen phones IMEI numbers.

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Never said they'd track you. The worst they'd do is take the phone when you try activating it.

rowley said:

From the pictures, the window caved in is around the corner, and the farthest away from where he was camping.

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I'm sure that if he heard anything he would have preferred to remain unnoticed to avoid getting beaten up or killed.
And who knows, maybe he called the police.

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toddybody said:

Well, you know the best thing to cure looting biker gangs right?

Image

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Yep, only Jackie would have been able to save the Apple store. He's much better than a loaded weapon.

Time for "Occupy Apple!"