Attempted iPad Theft Foiled [Best Buy, Florida]

[eawmp1]

Early run on Best Buy iPads:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-ipad3-robbery-best-buy-20120315,0,6060419.story

An alert Orange County deputy foiled what would have been the robbery of more than $1 million in new iPads from a Best Buy early Thursday, the Sheriff's Office said.

Sgt. Robbie Zeller was parked and watching the Best Buy near the Florida Mall when she saw a suspicious van pull up to the store about 4 a.m. Zeller saw a man dressed in black exit the van, and then called for assistance.

Deputies stopped the two people, who turned out to be current and former Best Buy employees.
When deputies searched the van, they found weapons, handcuffs and other evidence inside, the Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies have not publicly identified the two people, but said they planned to detain and restrain Best Buy employees and rob the store of its Apple products.

The Sheriff's Office said the value of the new iPads, which hit shelves Friday, are worth more than $1 million.

 

[badpinoy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

Early run on Best Buy iPads:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-ipad3-robbery-best-buy-20120315,0,6060419.story

An alert Orange County deputy foiled what would have been the robbery of more than $1 million in new iPads from a Best Buy early Thursday, the Sheriff's Office said.

Sgt. Robbie Zeller was parked and watching the Best Buy near the Florida Mall when she saw a suspicious van pull up to the store about 4 a.m. Zeller saw a man dressed in black exit the van, and then called for assistance.

Deputies stopped the two people, who turned out to be current and former Best Buy employees.
When deputies searched the van, they found weapons, handcuffs and other evidence inside, the Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies have not publicly identified the two people, but said they planned to detain and restrain Best Buy employees and rob the store of its Apple products.

The Sheriff's Office said the value of the new iPads, which hit shelves Friday, are worth more than $1 million.

Oh man this is making scared to sale my iPad. Think I'll be meeting in the bank.

 

[rgr555]

lol from dropping out of college, to working at best buy, to 10 years in jail

 

[DreamPod]

This actually gives a clue to the number of iPads that Best Buy stores are getting. A million dollars worth of iPads at one store, that's like 1200-2000 iPads.

 

[maclook]

Florida. Why am I not surprised?

 

[DS3]

This actually gives a clue to the number of iPads that Best Buy stores are getting. A million dollars worth of iPads at one store, that's like 1200-2000 iPads.

Obviously that makes sense, but it would seem a bit insane given how many most best buys had last year..

Maybe this is a really high traffic Best Buy though, guess its possible. Hopefully thats true and smaller ones will get a couple hundred instead of 20-50 or whatever last year... or hey, they can all have 1500 =)

 

[FearlessFreep]

Deputies stopped the two people, who turned out to be current and former Best Buy employees.

Further proof of why not to buy things from Best Buy.

 

[Southernboyj]

This actually gives a clue to the number of iPads that Best Buy stores are getting. A million dollars worth of iPads at one store, that's like 1200-2000 iPads.

To be fair, Orlando is a fairly large city. So smaller cities probably get a lot less.

 

[monkeylui]

This doesn't surprise me. This is the crapiest of crapiest areas of Orlando. My office is not too far down the street. & I hate that Best Buy, it's a tourist Best Buy, & it is a heavily trafficked store. I mean really heavy.

 

[NameUndecided]

This doesn't surprise me. This is the crapiest of crapiest areas of Orlando. My office is not too far down the street. & I hate that Best Buy, it's a tourist Best Buy, & it is a heavily trafficked store. I mean really heavy.

A Best Buy that draws in tourists? Is it a super huge and special Best Buy? Could that be part of why it seems to have had such a large stock?

 

[Nuts4Apple]

I'm happy to hear that their attempts to rob the store were foiled. And the fact that they brought weapons, handcuffs, and other things to retain people that they've possibly worked with before or currently work with (they said one of them was a current BB employee) is just as disgusting. I hope all of these stores that are selling the iPad are beefing up security as much as they can so the merchandise and customers will be protected. This is exactly why I like to order and have stuff shipped to my home instead of walking in these stores where some of the employees are just as big of crooks than anyone off the street.

 

[NameUndecided]

~

 

[noobinator]

A Best Buy that draws in tourists? Is it a super huge and special Best Buy? Could that be part of why it seems to have had such a large stock?

TONS of European tourists visiting Disney want to pick up a discounted iPad I bet.

 

[hefeglass]

this is easily the biggest rollout and release of any apple product so far..

they have never released in this many countries all on the same launch day.

i also read that some military AAfes places have near 200 when they only had like 10 last year


i would imagine best buy has a crap ton as well..

 

[chukronos]

This actually gives a clue to the number of iPads that Best Buy stores are getting. A million dollars worth of iPads at one store, that's like 1200-2000 iPads.

Someone claimed in another thread that their FedEx guy had dropped off 1500 ipads to a best buy in Brooklyn. I think the stores will have plenty.

 

[monkeylui]

A Best Buy that draws in tourists? Is it a super huge and special Best Buy? Could that be part of why it seems to have had such a large stock?

No. It's an old ugly best buy. Lol. But the Florida mall that the article mentions is across the street. It's a huge mall & is a huge tourist shopping destination. Tour buses go to this mall to shop. They do have a nice apple store though. Lol. There is a hotel in the middle of the mall too. Haha.

 

[monkeylui]

TONS of European tourists visiting Disney want to pick up a discounted iPad I bet.

It's not discounted though. Still the same price at this best buy.

 

[noobinator]

It's not discounted though. Still the same price at this best buy.

I meant in Europe.

 

[Bigmacduck]

Dirt cheap in US

TONS of European tourists visiting Disney want to pick up a discounted iPad I bet.

Why not, now that the Dollar is so dirt cheap relative to some European currencies?

 

[hchavarria]

Florida. Why am I not surprised?

Do they not have robbers in your neck ok the woods?

 

[ZBoater]

Florida. Why am I not surprised?

But of course! This would never happen in like New York or California...

 

[maclook]

But of course! This would never happen in like New York or California...

There would have been a high speed car chase if it were California.

 

[monkeylui]

I meant in Europe.

I gotcha. My bad.

 

[Caliber26]

Best Buy iPad HEIST Gone Bad

I'm glad these two clowns were caught and sent where they belong. And hopefully they get plenty of time for this.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A pair of would-be robbers came fully armed with handcuffs, guns and masks, all for a million-dollar iPad heist.

Orange County investigators say an alert deputy stopped the two robbers before they could storm in and take over the store.

The new Apple iPad was set to go on sale at the Best Buy store near Florida Mall on Friday, but the pair had different plans.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said this was as inside job -- a current employee and a former employee. Investigators said the pair planned a violent plot to steal more than 2,000 of the new iPads, but an alert deputy caught on before they even made it into the store.

Orange County deputies said 24-year-old Jasmin Roman and 26-year-old Juan Ortiz-Valez planned the million-dollar-plus robbery and heist targeting iPads and other Apple products.

But the plot was foiled when Sgt. Robbie Zeller, working off-duty security, hired by Best Buy, spotted a suspicious U-Haul truck. She called for backup.

"I got to the back of Best Buy. The van was sitting in the middle of Morning Drive with its brake lights on … very suspicious," Zeller said.

Inside the van, deputies found guns, chains, handcuffs and masks. Investigators said the pair wore black clothing that they had bought the previous night.

"They watched too many movies. To come out and see this this morning was a like a practical joke or April Fools," Detective Geoff Fahringer said.

But investigators don't think their motives were a joke. Roman, the alleged mastermind, was a current employee. Ortiz-Valez had recently been fired, the Sheriff's Office said.

Investigators said they planned to hold a manager at gunpoint first thing in the morning, tie employees up and steal $1.3 million worth of the Apple merchandise.

Investigators said the suspects confessed to the entire plot.

"If not for Sgt. Zeller, I guarantee you somebody would've been held at gunpoint and we would have had a significant theft," Fahringer said.

Neither suspect has a criminal history. Investigators don't know how they planned to unload the merchandise after the thefts.

As for Zeller, she told WFTV after the news conference at the sheriff's office that this was the first off-duty detail she had worked in five years.

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/-duty-deputy-thwarts-million-dollar-best-buy-ipad-/nLTgH/

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Always grateful to know that some of the dumbest criminals in the world live right here in the ole US of A.