iPhones have never been a basic consumer product. But while there are those who will work hard to renew the device with the bitten apple on their back – there are always those who will try the ancient and quick way to get something valuable for free: theft. Take for example the two American thieves who left an Apple store in the state of Washington in the United States with a loot of more than 400 iPhones with a total value of about half a million dollars.
The hack was not standard, and the two, who knew that Apple stores are full of cameras and advanced security accessories, came up with an original solution. They simply broke into a coffee shop adjacent to an Apple store, with the justified assumption that a local coffee shop would invest less in security than an Apple store. From the moment they entered the coffee shop, they crept into the inner room, which also shares a wall with the Apple flagship store, and then sawed a hole in the common wall. Once the hole was big enough, they simply walked into the Apple store, loaded up 436 new iPhones and went on their way.
“Someone must have thought of this in advance and had access to the way the mall is built,” said Eric Marks, the manager of the coffee shop that was broken into, to the NBC network’s regional station in Lynnwood. According to him, the fact that the burglars knew exactly where to cut, without damaging the infrastructure such as electricity or water, and to reach the Apple store directly – indicates that the thieves planned the break-in well in advance and were equipped with accurate intelligence.
Mike Atkinson, the owner of the chain of coffee shops, first revealed the hack on his Twitter account. Atkinson said that in his opinion one of the thieves was probably connected to one of the stores, and thus obtained the vital information. According to him, from an examination of the store’s security cameras – which were handed over to the police – it appears that the two burglars entered his store, sawed a hole in the wall, stole all the iPhones and left “in less than 15 minutes”.
Good morning Twitter fans! Yesterday was a weird day…
1. Two men broke into one of our retail locations. Why? To cut a hole in our bathroom wall to access the Apple Store next door and steal $500k worth of Iphones????
2. Later that night on the way to the grocery store my wife… pic.twitter.com/DcUld6ULEd
— Mike Atkinson (@coffeemikeatkin) April 4, 2023
Apple did not comment on the case, however, it is important to remember that Apple is believed to have the ability to identify stolen iPhones from its stores, and once they try to activate them, it can block them, so they will not be useful. However, these are mostly iPhones that were stolen from a display, and it is not clear to what extent it can locate and monitor devices that were simply stolen from a warehouse in its store. An example of such a case was in 2020, when robbers took advantage of the protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd, entered Apple stores in several large cities across the US, and stole valuable goods from there. What the thieves, and those who may have purchased the devices from them, did not expect This is Apple’s response.
In the days after the robbery, photos of devices that were allegedly stolen as part of the robbery were seen on social networks, with the following message displayed on them: “Please return to the store (with the name of the store from which the device was allegedly stolen). This device has been deactivated and is under surveillance. The local law enforcement authorities will be alerted.” It is important to note that even then Apple did not confirm that this actually happened, what’s more the devices that were stolen were display devices and not “normal” devices that were stolen from the back of the store as happened in the current theft.
Last year there were several similar thefts of Apple products. In one of them, four thieves managed to escape with nearly 500 different products, including 220 iPhones, 200 Apple watches and 50 pairs of AirPods that were stolen from an Apple store in a mall in the city of Woodlands, Texas just before the store was supposed to open its doors.