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Big holiday iPhone heists strike Best Buy, Apple Store shopper
By Brooke Crothers
Published December 30, 2019
In year-end holiday heists, over $200,000 in iPhones were stolen from a Best Buy and a large haul of phones was taken from a car after an Apple Store shopping spree.
New iPhones are always a hot commodity but they become red hot during the holiday season when shoppers and stores stock up on America’s No.1 smartphone, according to a report at AppleInsider.
The biggest heist took place in Ardmore, Okla. where police say a Best Buy employee stole $200,000 worth of iPhones from a distribution center, according to a local News12 report.
In another Best Buy theft, police say three men broke into a store in Summerville, SC and lifted about 100 iPhones worth about $100,000, according to a local report, citing a store manager.
New iPhones are popular targets for thieves. (Apple)
Another large iPhone haul, worth $115,000, was taken from the car of a shopper who had just made an unusually large purchase at an Apple Bridgeport Village store in Oregon, a report said, citing police sources.
Police were looking for a man and a woman who allegedly stole the phones, adding that one of the suspects had stolen items from the same Apple Store the week before.
One of the thieves acted as a lookout while the other broke into the car, the report said.
iPhones aren’t the only Apple product targeted by bad guys
In a pre-holiday heist at the Stanford Shopping Center Apple Store in Palo Alto, Calif. thieves stole 22 iPads, 10 MacBooks, 71 iPhones and 23 Apple Pencils, according to report in a local Palo Alto newspaper. The total haul tallied $105,000.
This was a “grab-and-run heist,” the report said, citing police.
“The suspects, who were all described as being in their early 20s, ran into the store at 8:12 p.m. on Wednesday, picked up all the items they could carry and ran outside,” according to the report.
Two getaway cars were waiting for the men, the report said.
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/big-holiday-iphone-heists-strike-best-buy-apple-store-shopper