He didn't quit his job at NASA to run a coffee shop
Sure, their front doors share a wall and are about 15 feet apart, but WHO could have known?
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Thieves Tunnel Through Coffee Shop Wall to Steal $500,000 in iPhones From Washington Apple Store
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Sure, their front doors share a wall and are about 15 feet apart, but WHO could have known?
I hope they don’t Apple Steals billions from people each year & they have insurance
Ok this sounds odd but Apple will not block them. The sales will not stop just because of that, the prices will be low and people will buy them. Blocking them would mean that the buyer gets to pay for the crime, yet I am sure it’s better for Apple that they work to gain new customers long term.
Neither the coffee shop or Apple Store had any type of motion sensing alarm?
Apple doesn’t keep devices locked up? I worked in a phone store and phones where I massive safe lockers, the keys in the actual safe.
Apple will know the serials and IMEI anyway to be able to block these. Sadly however that won’t affect the thief who will flip these pretty quickly to unsuspecting people.
Apple doesn’t keep devices locked up? I worked in a phone store and phones where I massive safe lockers, the keys in the actual safe.
Apple will know the serials and IMEI anyway to be able to block these. Sadly however that won’t affect the thief who will flip these pretty quickly to unsuspecting people.
But Apple is not necessarily tracking the thieves, per se, just the iPhones themselves
Definitely was — from-inside-the-coffee-shop job.To me, it most definately seems like it's an inside job. Everything is pretty much caught on the surveillance video.
being from Seattle, this doesn't surprise me at all.... I'm sure they used a stolen kia as the getaway car and are just trading the phones for some fentanyl.
If the hole leads directly into the Apple store's storage room as the summary suggests:
- 2 thieves go into storage room
- thief #1 tosses iPhones to thief #2 standing next to hole who tosses iPhones to thief #3 on the other side of the wall and puts them into a large trash bag
- thief #4 takes each filled trash bag out to the getaway vehicle, or they can wait until all trash bags are full then each person carries 2 trash bags out.
This would be a 3-4 person job for things to go smoothly.
I'd imagine a large 65 gallon trash bag can hold somewhere around 70-80 iPhones, if not more. At 70-80 iPhones per bag, that's 7-8 filled trash bags.
If they had cut a larger hole then they could have fill the bags while inside the Apple store's storage room then passed the bags through the hole.
This would have to be an inside job (current or former Apple store employee) as they'd need to know where the storage room was and that it can be accessed through the Seattle Coffee Gear's bathroom.
The theif/thieves will know that they'll be activation locked, but the buyer won't if they're sold on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, sent overseas, etc.
You're not thinking like a thief. They didn't steal 500 iPhones to use themselves. They'll either be selling them to unsuspecting buyers (craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, etc) or stripping them for parts.
If retail value is $500,000 as summary suggests, they can sell them for 20% to 25% off on craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, overseas, etc. That's easily $375,000 - $400,000
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Waiting for someone to copy this in a Samsung store. Oh wait...
You see them on YouTubers tearing them apart lol......... youtube is full of stolen phones sold to YouTubers.
Its going to hit the Darkweb soon and lost for ever. They prob did apple a favour since demand for some iPhone models are low and they needed some shelf space.
and they needed some shelf space.
I think they did it to send a message. Although a tidy workspace may have been a more effective way to prove they could do a stand-up job…
Do iPhones ship activated or are they activated after they are sold? I would think the smart thing to do would be to ship them off, then turn them on when someone purchases them. This would also be a good way to prevent manufacturers from making a few more and giving them out to friends.
AirPods Find My is nearly useless. I have an AirTag connected to my AirPods if that tells you anything (other than the fact that Apple got extra money out of me)
"I would have never suspected we were adjacent to the Apple Store, how it wraps around I mean”
Never?
“So, someone really had to think it out and have access to the mall layout."
I have access to the mall layout.
Yeah... I wanted to give that guy the benefit of the doubt, but I looked at images in the mall... the front door of the Apple Store is side by side with the front door of Seattle Coffee Gear. If someone doesn't realize they share a wall, they're kind of dumb.
I suppose maybe it requires some inside knowledge to know that the coffee shop's bathroom shares a wall with Apple's storage room? Since Apple doesn't exactly advertise where they keep stock (but also... it's fairly obvious?)
I would agree.To me, it most definately seems like it's an inside job. Everything is pretty much caught on the surveillance video.
Yes, but that only hurts the end user - who likely had nothing to do with the theft or any knowledge that they are purchasing a stolen phone. It doesn't hurt the thieves at all.