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Thieves Target Durham, North Carolina Apple Store in Smash-and-Grab Robbery
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No thinking it a problem. Well aware of society issues. Was just curious if Apple had a security feature beyond the norm so when things like this happen, the stolen items become useless.
Understood. Shame though no additional security.
Thank you!
Apple chooses to ignore the concept "Crime Prevention by Design" during store construction. If a business designs its store layout in such a way as to make it easy for B&E artist to steal, then the company can't complain if victimized. Glass is pretty but does little to stop a determine criminal.
A lot of people here seem to be under several delusions when it comes to glass storefronts.
First, this is not a problem even closely exclusive to Apple stores. Most Apple stores are in malls. Show me a store in a mall, indoor or outdoor, that DOESN'T have at least a partial wall of glass or gigantic windows in the front. There's a reason it's called window shopping, folks. The percentage of glass makes no difference to the "ease" of breaking in. Is your house more likely to be broken into if it has 20 windows instead of 10? No. If it has one, it can be broken in the same way.
Second, breaking glass is not always as easy as you think it might be. Glass, just like any other material has strengths and weaknesses, and like any other material requires the right tools and technique to break it. Also, the kind of glass used plays a huge part. Some glass is damn near unbreakable.
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This news really saddens me. I feel sick to my stomach that people can want to do something like this.
Says the guy from Cary, NC. Actually, I'm glad that clueless, boring people still think Durham is sketchy and dangerous. Helps to keep Durham's unique character in tact. Heaven forbid it ever become someplace as bland and diluted as Cary.
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Apple chooses to ignore the concept "Crime Prevention by Design" during store construction. If a business designs its store layout in such a way as to make it easy for B&E artist to steal, then the company can't complain if victimized. Glass is pretty but does little to stop a determine criminal.
Those windows are weather/structural rated and don't break easily. At that point somebody is willing to do $10k in damages just to get in. As a property owner you can hunker down and armor up with a bunch of chains and shutters, or just put all the merchandise in another locked room in the back.
Legally, Apple gets them back because the value of the property damage alone is a felony... Worth more than you are gonna carry out I'm iPads and Macs. If somebody is gonna smash an expensive window, block the window and they just try dangerously harder and harder. It's all replaceable corporate property, armor it up too much and employees or security gets hurt.
The amount of business per square foot an Apple Store does, being closed to replace the glass for a few hours is probably as much or more lost sales as lost merchandise/property to be replaced.
That gets thrown on the "damages" tab if they ever catch you... Slap another $10k-$15k on top of the $5k-$7k window and whatever you stole. You'd be better off lighting a new car dealer on fire... They don't have as good of lawyers.
If the glass on the front of the store breaks, a detector should automatically close all doors of the mall, locking them from the outside. The thieves can hang out at the food court until the police arrive. What could possibly go wrong?
Criminals often return to the scene of the crime. BOLO for a guy in a red T-shirt, brown shorts and questionable footwear.
Actually they didn't. The store image has it pre-installed and each device on the floor has a specific Apple ID associated with it, reflective of its position in the store (R302.iPh5S.F2L@icloud.com for example, though the formula can differ from store to store)
Yeah but it's the Southpoint area. May as well be called North Cary. But maybe I'm biased since I live there
Since they finished the bridge over I40 the moat has been breached! Any old rabble can run to Streets and vanish into Durham center now.
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Or it's just people who read the news and see someone being shot, robbed or mugged every other day. There's a reason people prefer to travel only the south part of the ATT from Southpoint. Less chance of being mugged.
In the past week we had a stabbing murder, shooting at the Cook Out, chemical bomb on a bus, drunk guy shooting at people passing by ...
The only places I would venture in Durham are directly around the Bulls park and Brightleaf. Northgate Mall you run the risk of a drive by at the weekend and even Duke campus is a risky area at night if you are walking alone.
Still, at least it isn't Fayetteville.
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Hell, they'll return them when they read Macrumors and find out they need 16 GB of RAM to browse the internet.
To the people who have asked about whether or not it would be possible for the Macs to be re-used:
1. If they have just a regular login lock, this is super-easy to bypass. There are ways to get the password, but it's easier to just reinstall OSX. Done.
2. If they have EFI lock (like a BIOS password), you can't just clear the CMOS like you can with a PC by taking out the RTC battery. There are still ways of cracking this though. I think it's unlikely that the Macbooks would have EFI passwords though.
If the thieves are pretty stupid, which they probably are since they're going around stealing stuff instead of getting a job, they will probably try to sell for parts. If they're unfortunate, they will ask some random tech shop for help in removing passwords or stripping parts and get caught.
Here's a run down on what kind of parts we're looking at:
- HDD/SSD - Might get up to $100 for a barely used SSD, but that market is small for PCI-e based SSD storage, and they will get nowhere near that much money for a HDD.
- Macbook Airs have their RAM soldered onto the logic board, but if they got some Macbook Pros, they would be able to sell the RAM sticks. Possibly around $50 per Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM.
- The rest would either be scrap or spare parts. Things like the top assembly with LCD would be salable to repairers and on eBay, etc. Logic boards would be unusable with an EFI lock on them, but otherwise they may be sold for upwards of $100 if they can find buyers.
So assuming they got 5 MBP and 5 MBA, they would be looking at around $1500 in profit. Barely enough to buy a good iMac.
On the other hand they may try to scam buyers on classifieds pretending that they are working and stuff.
1. If they have just a regular login lock, this is super-easy to bypass. There are ways to get the password, but it's easier to just reinstall OSX. Done.
2. If they have EFI lock (like a BIOS password), you can't just clear the CMOS like you can with a PC by taking out the RTC battery. There are still ways of cracking this though. I think it's unlikely that the Macbooks would have EFI passwords though.
If the thieves are pretty stupid, which they probably are since they're going around stealing stuff instead of getting a job, they will probably try to sell for parts. If they're unfortunate, they will ask some random tech shop for help in removing passwords or stripping parts and get caught.
Here's a run down on what kind of parts we're looking at:
- HDD/SSD - Might get up to $100 for a barely used SSD, but that market is small for PCI-e based SSD storage, and they will get nowhere near that much money for a HDD.
- Macbook Airs have their RAM soldered onto the logic board, but if they got some Macbook Pros, they would be able to sell the RAM sticks. Possibly around $50 per Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM.
- The rest would either be scrap or spare parts. Things like the top assembly with LCD would be salable to repairers and on eBay, etc. Logic boards would be unusable with an EFI lock on them, but otherwise they may be sold for upwards of $100 if they can find buyers.
So assuming they got 5 MBP and 5 MBA, they would be looking at around $1500 in profit. Barely enough to buy a good iMac.
On the other hand they may try to scam buyers on classifieds pretending that they are working and stuff.
Nothing wrong with going meta on an obvious joke thats been done before. Your contribution however is completely pointless.
The location of the store makes for easy in and out of the mall. It is on a corner and you're in the parking lot in under 30 seconds if you're walking. You can get out on the street quite easily and on the freeway in no time. Not sure where security was at this point because this mall has a fair amount of high end shops right there.
Have you gone into Cary over by the train depot? Yeah, do that. When you pass the house on Chapel Hill Road with the woman holding a baby smoking a cigarette, sitting on the porch while watching her toddler play in a cruddy yard, tell me about Cary.
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Why? They didn't do anything to their image. They were robbed. Robberies happen and stores survive.
I love the ignorant over-generalization of a city. Especially a part of the city that is absolutely not the "dirty Durham" you clearly think of when Durham is mention.
Some parts, yes. Not this part that was robbed.
Have you gone into Cary over by the train depot? Yeah, do that. When you pass the house on Chapel Hill Road with the woman holding a baby smoking a cigarette, sitting on the porch while watching her toddler play in a cruddy yard, tell me about Cary.
Relax pal. Not everyone in Cary believes that Durham is bad. Your generalizations are just as bad as his. You cannot dispute that Durham has its problems; Raleigh too. Only parts of Durham have a nice unique character that is quite desirable. What people don't get is that Southpoint should definitely or may as well be just considered Southpoint and not even Durham. It is nice.
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Why? They didn't do anything to their image. They were robbed. Robberies happen and stores survive.
For those "not in the know" thinking this was inside a mall...its actually outside and the corner store that connects to the parking lot. Although this is the section that is usually crawling with cops, as its very near the movie theater also.
As far as the Durham comments...pretty much every city has its good area's and bad area's. The city did a good job of keeping this quiet as I didnt see it on the local news, as this definitely isnt the reputation that Southpoint would want publicized. Hopefully they can catch them, as I would hate the Apple Store to get a reputation as an easy target...
As far as the Durham comments...pretty much every city has its good area's and bad area's. The city did a good job of keeping this quiet as I didnt see it on the local news, as this definitely isnt the reputation that Southpoint would want publicized. Hopefully they can catch them, as I would hate the Apple Store to get a reputation as an easy target...
Find My Mac
I don't understand why Apple just doesn't activate "Find my Mac" on all of the display laptops. This is pretty much the sole purpose of the app. I doubt they'd be able to sell all of those laptops by then.
On top of that, it'd be great publicity for how safe their products are.
I don't understand why Apple just doesn't activate "Find my Mac" on all of the display laptops. This is pretty much the sole purpose of the app. I doubt they'd be able to sell all of those laptops by then.
On top of that, it'd be great publicity for how safe their products are.
