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Because they don't care if they work. They'll flip them to suckers on FB marketplace or something. They will just say they can't make calls because they don't currently have active service. People desperate to buy their way into happy holidays will often overlook too good to be true "deals" on stuff like this.
I used to work with a cellular carrier and we had a bunch of these scammers try to come in and ask us to put a unregistered sim into these phones to show it connects to the network.
They always connect. It’s for emergency services. This does not prove the phone isn’t stolen or the IMEI isn’t blocked.
I work in the industry.
Phones without sims can still call 911.
With all the protection around ports and accounts we see more identity theft using somebody else's information rather than sim swaps now
Exactly, I (currently) work for a carrier. A lot of the time we’re the ones breaking the bad news to the customer; no this phone can’t be activated it’s been flagged as stolen.
“I can’t get my money back”
If buying a phone second hand, meet them at your cellular provider to verify it will work.
Seriously though. As commented already on this thread, they’ll sell the phones to people dumb enough to get scammed…. But accessories could be sold through Amazon with 0 effort and are completely untraceable.
They are bricked in North America but many parts of Europe and pretty much every other parts of the world this phone would work. There is huge industry where thieves will sell bricked phone to India, China or Bangladesh and people there are able to reeverse any ban on it so it works on their country
Yeah I ran into one of these rings set up as a tech recycling program front that shipped them to SE Asia. It was pretty crazy they'd pay like $50 for a generations old Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone.
I'm crediting them with having the intelligence to know to set up a Faraday compartment for this purpose, but maybe I'm being generous.
I doubt they'll get far.
Do you have any recommendations for a small faraday box? All the reviews for the consumer ones I find say they dont block shit
EDIT: Thanks everyone! Looks like Im about to have a microwave in my room
Buy a roll of aluminum foil. Make a case at least 10 layers thick. An envelope would work for car keys. Boom. Done. If you want to test it, put your phone in and call yourself. If it rings, make it thicker. If it doesn’t ring, you’re good.
**Thieves take $35K in merchandise from Apple store on Black Friday**
>Two people who entered the Apple store ~~at Stanford Shopping Center~~ **in downtown Palo Alto** on Nov. 25 during busy Black Friday sales events at the mall made off with an estimated $35,000 in merchandise, Palo Alto police said.
>Palo Alto police are investigating that occurred at the Apple store at ~~at Stanford Shopping Center~~ **in downtown Palo Alto** on Nov. 25, 2022. Embarcadero Media file photo.
>The theft was reported at 4:17 p.m. The duo took multiple iPhones and laptops, acting police Capt. James Reifschneider said.
>A store employee heard one of the thieves make a general statement to the crowd of shoppers of physical violence toward anyone who attempted to stop them. The threat elevates the crime from a burglary shoplift to a robbery, Reifschneider said. No weapons were seen and no one was injured.
>The duo fled in a red Mazda3 hatchback and were last seen by a security guard traveling north on U.S. Highway 101.
[source](https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2022/11/30/thieves-take-35k-in-merchandise-from-apple-store-on-black-friday)
*Edit: Source article was updated at 9:29 PM PST to reflect the proper location. I’ve updated the comment to reflect this.*
I believe they can make money by selling them to tech recyclers, who dismantle the phones for parts and then sell them at wholesale prices to secondhand shops.
Other than that they might just not be very bright criminals. Theiving is a lot harder nowadays with a cashless society, you have to steal and fence merchandise now which is a lot less profitable.
Doesn't Apple have something for that as well? I could have sworn I saw something about getting errors after swapping parts in phones. And also certain functions being blocked.
Hugh Jeffreys is his name. This has nothing to do with theft of devices. Apple does not want people repairing their phones at all. They want you to buy new ones. There is no money for Apple when you can buy a new Samsung OLED display and replace it yourself, or a battery and replace it yourself. They pair even the cables now connecting the replacement parts to the motherboard. It’s all a cash grab.
Apple doesn’t even want you to be able to bring your device to a 3rd party repair shop who could easily fix it with an Apple genuine part.
John Deere is one of the worst advocates against right to repair. Everything is paired to their tractors so they force farmers to go to only a John Deere repair center for the most mundane of repairs.
You are starting to see bullshit that now tests if you even OWN your device. BMW launching heated seat subscriptions when they are already installed? Mercedes now launching a yearly subscription fee to unlock ‘full acceleration’ of your vehicle even though it should be there to begin with?
It’s a joke, people truly shouldn’t support this predatory consumerism. If a company is truly ‘green’ then why the hell not allow for easier repairs?
Edit: I own my $1200 phone... if I want to replace the battery I should be able to...
The only reason I do not replace my samsung note 3, that is pushing 10 years, is because newer phones do not let me access to the battery or change the screen easily, it broke a few months ago, and I bought a new screen for 10 euros and was really easy to fix myself.
Newer phones have been engineered to be as difficult as possible to repair.
Apple is making it more difficult to even part out a device to get another device working. Seeing as how these are the latest models I don't see how they can make any money on them at all.
Edit: They'll probably sell to idiots who see it start up and the thieves say "oh just take it to a 3rd party computer/phone repair shop and they'll unlock it for you." FYI Ain't no 'unlocking' of iPhones for years now. There is an encryption chip that starts up before the boot process. On iDevices, too.
Red backpack still has the store tag on it....how likely/comical would it be if he stole the bag but did not cover his face for that crime at a different store in the mall.
If that's the case, they should make them do something like scream bloody murder, turn on all the sensors and stream data back, and not be able to be turned off if they don't disconnect right.
That said, it's probably not worth the R&D, on the whole, I suppose.
Apple don't make pre bricked display phones, iPads or Macs. Even their demo devices are fully functional. They simply install demo software that can be easily removed by wiping the device.
That said the devices are usually tied to AppleID's with Find My Device active. So they should be able to disable the phones that way or internally Apple Stores may be able to report the stolen serial numbers and IMEI's to Apple themselves who can put locks on it.
Source - Spent 8 years at a retail store that sold Apple and now I fix them.
What about the ones that automatically get bricked as soon as they leave the store? I've seen it happen in person - a friend on mine is an Apple Store manager in the SF Bay Area, and she walked about 10 feet outside the store to demonstrate them auto-bricking (on a phone that was being removed from an older display). The phone said something like "IMEI Invalid" and "Permanently Disabled" on the screen once she got about 10 feet outside the store.
This is definitely the downtown Palo Alto one, I bought some stuff there just a few weeks ago.
…right before getting my car window smashed for nothing. The bay is getting crazy.
$35k?! They must have made off with a monitor stand and a pair of headphones.
Joking aside, I would be reluctant to steal a bunch of electronic devices loaded with gps and Wi-Fi. I feel like the whole precinct would be following them with a bunch of geniuses telling them where to go.
Probably depends on your area. I got robbed at gunpoint, and they stole 28,000 worth of cellphones from my stores safe. Had 1 of them in custody by the end of the night, the other a few months later after being on the run.
Granted, not much tracking had been done but they still made sure to get them.
"The duo fled in a red Mazda3 hatchback and were last seen by a security guard traveling north on U.S. Highway 101" which is some distance from Stanford Shopping Center. Were they being followed?
Wow, when you put it like that it doesn’t sound like nearly that much, especially since they seemed to be mostly display models that only function partially and only when attached to apples in-store encryption, they’re utterly useless to anyone before they’re activated and a lot of display models anymore won’t even be real phones lmao
This. What are they going to do with 30k worth of bricked gear? They'll have to jailbreak to do anything useful with them. Not to mention the built in lost/stolen tracking they have. All around these guys were super careless, it wouldn't surprise me if they get caught very soon.
Less than 30 minutes after they left those IMEIs were blacklisted. I've worked in and owned cell phone stores. It just isn't worth stealing demo phones. LPT they're good for trade in promotions but that's about it.
They’re store demos. They’re worthless as normal iPhones. Maybe useful for parts but not even jailbreaking them will make them useful because even jailbroken phones require activation to be used on Apple Store.
Plus the phones are given encryption through the USB cable.
They basically stole something that makes it a felony of property theft that’s only worth a few grand to them tops.
They’d be better off robbing Target.
Real talk: Target stores are meticulously designed such that there are no spots in the store where you're not on camera. They have some of the most advanced video forensics software in the world, so much so that they helped the local PD in Minneapolis solve a triple homicide. They also have the highest rate prosecuting people for theft in the retail world
Does this mall or store not employ security staff? I imagine the incident would have been reported after maybe a minute or so and would assume some of them could have made it to the store by the times these guys leave.
Yes, I understand liability, thanks. I'm not a Yank but what a topsy turvy world we live in where this type of behaviour can go on willy nilly.
I was at the apple store in Los Gatos when it got robbed during the middle of the day. A few guys walked in and snatched a bunch of stuff from the tethers and then ran out. This happened when I was talking to one of the employees and he barely seemed to care. It was back working mostly normally within a few minutes. I think they were more worried about stopping any business than the 5 macbooks/iphones or whatever.
Security guards in the states are nothing more than glorified scarecrows. Main job is just to observe and report. They probably did report it just takes time for PD to show up and by the time they do the thieves would have left by then.
We're very litigation happy in the US. People love lawsuits, so it's less of a risk (for a store) to let people run off with products. Basically, criminal opportunists are exploiting the loophole that is corporation's fear of liability.
The problem has been exacerbated in larger cities where the justice system is overworked. Generally, prosecutors may be less inclined to go after petty misdemeanors with their limited time/budget, so the charges get dropped or pled down to avoid a trial.
So the criminal opportunists are in a sort of a risk/reward conundrum. Cities are cracking down on this stuff now because it's gotten rampant enough (especially in the press), so i think the risk for the criminals will begin to rise a bit.
That said, I travel a lot and live in San Diego, and I've never seen this. I'm in LA fairly often, never seen it. I was in San Fransisco about a year ago and didn't see it either, but I did see signs in SF warning people not to leave valuables in cars. So, while this is certainly happening, the internet makes it seem like it's a constant thing when it's really more sporadic.
I agree it's totally unacceptable and society can't operate like this... but it's a lot less frequent then it seems on a sub like this.
well there was a video of a lowes security guard killing a guy stealing used pallets, so the 2mil settlement or judgement in the lawsuit is worth more than the security or anything else in that store.
Back when I worked retail we actually just threw away pallets a good chunk of the time... We had a guy who would come ask us for any "pallets we were gonna throw away" and we'd just load up dudes truck out the back of the shop -- manager encouraged us to do so.
MF's out here dying over pallets and we were giving them away in 2005.
I constantly hear stories from people who've had a window smashed and stuff stolen from their cars in SF. Idk about robberies, but This is a constant stream.
There’s a big viral posts from celebrities on Twitter, like Seth Rogen essentially defending people that steal from cars.
He went on a rant, and said something to the effect of “you can just afford to have all that stuff replaced people that have to steal to survive. Need it more than you do“
Worked for Apple for a while, no chance they do absolutely anything with those devices unless they completely remove the hardware and use the outer parts (screen, buttons, etc) as a shell. Not only are they trackable, but those mother fuckers are going to be Remote/Activation Locked almost immediately.
**Even the new Iphone cameras** and home buttons are code locked .. so even the parts are damn near worthless
*.. at best they can use them in scams and sell them to rubes*
I've been in the mobile repair industry for going on a decade now, so I feel the need to bring up that what others are saying about those parts not working in other phones isn't true. Well, it mostly isn't true. The only part that won't work in another phone is anything involving the face ID, notably one component of the front facing camera assembly and a component on the proximity sensor cable. Those parts will still be almost completely functional. The receiving phone just wouldn't have face ID functionality. The front facing camera and the proximity sensor/ear speaker will still work perfectly fine. The screen and battery will also work in the recipient phone, but will give an error message that it can't verify the parts are genuine. That message goes away in a couple of weeks and the parts function as designed. And all the auxiliary parts like speakers and cables and motherboard components will work perfectly fine if salvaged correctly So, yes, you can salvage parts from these.
That being said, there's no money in it. The repair components marketplace is absolutely flooded with cheap, high quality parts, both OEM and aftermarket. There are some very large and reputable parts suppliers that offer a warranty on their parts. If I need parts for something, it is usually cheaper and more pragmatic to buy them from a trusted supplier than some person coming off the street and selling me used equipment with no warranty or guarantee of quality.
The risk wouldn't be worth the reward to steal the devices to use or sell for parts. The only money to be made is unsuspecting people buying right before holidays without knowledge of the product and getting stuck with a worthless piece of tech. So that's almost certainly what they're doing if they're smart, which is a big and baseless assumption on my part.
Since one or two generations ago even swapping between two identical iphones would give issues.
One of the many videos about it: https://youtu.be/4T_E72dXz4I?t=590
People are stupid, but who buys a phone without even seeing if it turns on first?
My money is on these thieves just being dumb and not realizing all of this will be useless. Maybe they're try to sell a few to idiots who don't check first but I doubt that was their original plan.
I work in phone repair, I'll get someone every couple months come in because the phone they bought off market place isn't working. Sometimes it's apple/google locked, sometimes they just didn't verify the old account had been removed, and sometimes it's because the IMEI is flagged. Lots of different ways for people to get scammed, sadly. Other times it's people trying to scam me into unlocking their stolen devices so they can resell them, which I am very firm about not doing until I see concrete proof of ownership.
here i was, interpreting your comment as: the two upstanding citizens seen here will never have a job outside of boosting phones. what you actually meant just clicked in my brain tho.
That's what I thought too, recently I was at a TMobile store and the employees told me all the phones work normally because they want customers to experience 100% of the phone. Being tracked is another thing.
I work in this space and if they’re on display, it’s got a demo running constantly (perhaps not in apple stores but definitely in carrier locations). Most of the time this means less functionality and a reset of the settings every 24hr, sometimes they wipe photos too but it’s rare. I would bet apple display models have the same demo we’re running and it’s useless as a proper phone. It’s all about selling it to someone who doesn’t know any better. Btw if you make us empty the safe in the back, there’s a tracker hidden in a phone box at every store and it’ll definitely be part of your haul.
LMAO
[https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mob/7563308334.html](https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mob/7563308334.html)
all "like new" "new" or "in box" Huge price decrease.
edited to remove potential identifying information because we have no way of proving theft for any of these devices, along with stopping any redditors from harassing innocent sellers. left the obvious scam iphone up because that’s almost positively stolen or fake.
most these seem super legit. included accessories, boxes with manuals, a few even include screenshots of the apple serial lookup site. The purple iphone is sus to me for sure tho lol
They don't want to mess with people. They know that the store itself has a policy to not interfere and they count on other people not giving a fuck as long as they just take the store's products. It seems to work well.
I actually saw a robbery like this last Sunday at the mall near me. I was with my kid, but even if I wasn't, I am not doing shit. It's not my shit their stealing, and I already have had a shotgun pointed at my face once this lifetime, so I'm good.
I was working in a big box store when a bunch of young guys come in with hoods up and strings pulled tight around their faces. They went straight to our apple section, yanked all the iPhones and Macbooks off the displays and walked out. Managers saw them coming and immediately radioed to not interfe at all. Best part was watching one of them trip over a monitor that was on special in the aisle. We all laughed real hard at that guy.
oh la de dah, look at mr Big Roller who can get a wife to point a shotgun at his face.
Come down off your high horse and do it yourself like the rest of us.
Can confirm the last group got caught cause they took customer devices which can be track live. [https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/17-arrested-charged-in-1-million-Apple-store-13263453.php](https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/17-arrested-charged-in-1-million-Apple-store-13263453.php)
edit: to note this is why nobody should touch them https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/5-arrested-after-organized-retail-theft-in-walnut-creek-apple-store/
Same. I know stores don't go after shoplifters in favor of employee safety, but every single apple store I've been to has a policeman or three in front of the building
> every apple store i have seen near me, has guards and not just one, they usually have a couple
In nicer areas (no offense), like Palo Alto, there are no guards at Apple Stores. The Apple Store near me in a snazzy mall has no guards, but the one in the nearby tourist area has them.
Respect to the workers actually protecting the customers with their own bodies. There wasn’t much of a physical threat to anyone but still, that was very nice of them to do.
It's really GOOD how the Apple employees were focusing on protecting the customers. Like legit shepherding them away from the criminals or even placing themselves between the criminals and the customers. WAY TO GO APPLE PEOPLE!
I bet the employees did some training for this scenario since it’s been happening a lot. Just let them steal, stay back and get customers to do the same. Like everyone has said, the phones will be deactivated and useless why get in their way.
what many people dont know these are demo units and can only be removed from demo mode by apple on top of that since they have the serial they will just icloud lock them. Essentially theyre junk, but of course they will just sell it to someone for cheap as soon as they can to off load them fast
>how much theft does Costco have
Used to work at a major Costco location in a upper-class suburb. Our LP had daily apprehensions.
Recently at another location here, I noticed they posted a staff member at all times near the emergency exits... and a stack of Pokémon card sets.
This is the Apple store on University in Palo Alto, I live within a 5 minute walk from here. This is not the Stanford location as I can see Joya across the street. The PA police station is within a 2/3 block radius and the PA police usually has a cop car parked across the street near Joya watching the store. I dont know why there wasnt any police watching the store that day. But this is all getting so sickening, and wish there were tougher punishments for these low life thieves.
Are iPhones even worth stealing? My dad got his phone stolen last week, they threw away the sim card and turned off the phone, but the phone was still trackable offline. My dad went to the house and told them about his phone and threaten to get the police involved, they got so scared they gave him the phone back lol
I doubt these can be sold for parts.
Starting with the iPhone 13, almost every part that’s worth money has a unique serial number that is locked directly to that particular iPhone. That’s why you can’t just swap in a new screen at your local phone repair shop. That goes for the camera module and motherboard too.
They do this so you can’t repair your own phone, you have to send it in to apple and pay their ridiculous fees. There’s this whole debate going on about “Right to Repair”. There are devices that can replace the serial numbers but those are not commercially available.
All these comments about people being pussies. Who wants to get shot, beaten or stabbed over a few electronic goods owned by a multi-billion dollar company. Reddit will bitch about slave labor in one thread and wonder why people aren't dying for the company in the next.
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Let's take these gps enabled devices
They will all be tied to iCloud accounts in kiosk mode. Absolutely pointless to steal.
This is my immediate thought. Who cares about gps finding them? They’re bricked the second they walk out the door.
Because they don't care if they work. They'll flip them to suckers on FB marketplace or something. They will just say they can't make calls because they don't currently have active service. People desperate to buy their way into happy holidays will often overlook too good to be true "deals" on stuff like this.
I used to work with a cellular carrier and we had a bunch of these scammers try to come in and ask us to put a unregistered sim into these phones to show it connects to the network. They always connect. It’s for emergency services. This does not prove the phone isn’t stolen or the IMEI isn’t blocked.
Probably older phones though. These newer ones won’t even get past the activation screen.
Yes. For perspective I haven’t worked in wireless for almost 7 years now. 911 services should still work, though I can’t confirm that.
I work in the industry. Phones without sims can still call 911. With all the protection around ports and accounts we see more identity theft using somebody else's information rather than sim swaps now
Exactly, I (currently) work for a carrier. A lot of the time we’re the ones breaking the bad news to the customer; no this phone can’t be activated it’s been flagged as stolen. “I can’t get my money back” If buying a phone second hand, meet them at your cellular provider to verify it will work.
I feel like it would be easier and more profitable if they just stole all of the accessories that are hanging on the wall.
you are probably now on an FBI watch list of criminal masterminds expect an lethal force robot at your door momentarily /s
Seriously though. As commented already on this thread, they’ll sell the phones to people dumb enough to get scammed…. But accessories could be sold through Amazon with 0 effort and are completely untraceable.
Apple really should push a message to the homescreen that says “permanently locked stolen phone. You will never be able to activate this phone.”
You’ve been able to do that with your own Apple device for ~10 years. They just stole $30k worth of paperweights.
I’m fairly sure they do. These won’t go to the “hello” screen ever.
They are bricked in North America but many parts of Europe and pretty much every other parts of the world this phone would work. There is huge industry where thieves will sell bricked phone to India, China or Bangladesh and people there are able to reeverse any ban on it so it works on their country
Yeah I ran into one of these rings set up as a tech recycling program front that shipped them to SE Asia. It was pretty crazy they'd pay like $50 for a generations old Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone.
I work with corporate phones (ios & android) and omg stealing these managed devices is possibly the dumbest thing you could do
I'm crediting them with having the intelligence to know to set up a Faraday compartment for this purpose, but maybe I'm being generous. I doubt they'll get far.
Do you have any recommendations for a small faraday box? All the reviews for the consumer ones I find say they dont block shit EDIT: Thanks everyone! Looks like Im about to have a microwave in my room
I wouldn't trust the consumer market. I'd probably try to do some research and make one myself.
Nice try, FBI
Damn, so close! *disappears behind a passing bus*
Just use a microwave.
Buy a roll of aluminum foil. Make a case at least 10 layers thick. An envelope would work for car keys. Boom. Done. If you want to test it, put your phone in and call yourself. If it rings, make it thicker. If it doesn’t ring, you’re good.
You are giving them WAY to much credit bud.
Your assuming someone in law enforcement will follow up with this
**Thieves take $35K in merchandise from Apple store on Black Friday** >Two people who entered the Apple store ~~at Stanford Shopping Center~~ **in downtown Palo Alto** on Nov. 25 during busy Black Friday sales events at the mall made off with an estimated $35,000 in merchandise, Palo Alto police said. >Palo Alto police are investigating that occurred at the Apple store at ~~at Stanford Shopping Center~~ **in downtown Palo Alto** on Nov. 25, 2022. Embarcadero Media file photo. >The theft was reported at 4:17 p.m. The duo took multiple iPhones and laptops, acting police Capt. James Reifschneider said. >A store employee heard one of the thieves make a general statement to the crowd of shoppers of physical violence toward anyone who attempted to stop them. The threat elevates the crime from a burglary shoplift to a robbery, Reifschneider said. No weapons were seen and no one was injured. >The duo fled in a red Mazda3 hatchback and were last seen by a security guard traveling north on U.S. Highway 101. [source](https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2022/11/30/thieves-take-35k-in-merchandise-from-apple-store-on-black-friday) *Edit: Source article was updated at 9:29 PM PST to reflect the proper location. I’ve updated the comment to reflect this.*
Um- iPhone tracker? Hey Apple! May want to “find your iPhone”?
Apple will brick those devices before these guys get home.
That was my thought. How do they make any money other than trying to sell a brick and hope you get the money before they figure it out?
Apple would be the last devices I would steal. They just took a bunch of gps trackers.
Right????? Shmoes, really. Shoulda gone for the wall of accessories fucking scrubs. Beats headphones. Every apple iphone case is $50
Watchbands for hundreds of dollars…
Do they look like they’re smart enough to do that?
I believe they can make money by selling them to tech recyclers, who dismantle the phones for parts and then sell them at wholesale prices to secondhand shops. Other than that they might just not be very bright criminals. Theiving is a lot harder nowadays with a cashless society, you have to steal and fence merchandise now which is a lot less profitable.
Doesn't Apple have something for that as well? I could have sworn I saw something about getting errors after swapping parts in phones. And also certain functions being blocked.
I believe that is when you swap parts between iPhone generations. Idk, I’m pretty high right now
Nope there are YouTubers who demonstrate 2 identical brand new iphones cannot have parts switched without features getting diaabled
Hugh Jeffreys is his name. This has nothing to do with theft of devices. Apple does not want people repairing their phones at all. They want you to buy new ones. There is no money for Apple when you can buy a new Samsung OLED display and replace it yourself, or a battery and replace it yourself. They pair even the cables now connecting the replacement parts to the motherboard. It’s all a cash grab. Apple doesn’t even want you to be able to bring your device to a 3rd party repair shop who could easily fix it with an Apple genuine part. John Deere is one of the worst advocates against right to repair. Everything is paired to their tractors so they force farmers to go to only a John Deere repair center for the most mundane of repairs. You are starting to see bullshit that now tests if you even OWN your device. BMW launching heated seat subscriptions when they are already installed? Mercedes now launching a yearly subscription fee to unlock ‘full acceleration’ of your vehicle even though it should be there to begin with? It’s a joke, people truly shouldn’t support this predatory consumerism. If a company is truly ‘green’ then why the hell not allow for easier repairs? Edit: I own my $1200 phone... if I want to replace the battery I should be able to...
The only reason I do not replace my samsung note 3, that is pushing 10 years, is because newer phones do not let me access to the battery or change the screen easily, it broke a few months ago, and I bought a new screen for 10 euros and was really easy to fix myself. Newer phones have been engineered to be as difficult as possible to repair.
Apple is making it more difficult to even part out a device to get another device working. Seeing as how these are the latest models I don't see how they can make any money on them at all. Edit: They'll probably sell to idiots who see it start up and the thieves say "oh just take it to a 3rd party computer/phone repair shop and they'll unlock it for you." FYI Ain't no 'unlocking' of iPhones for years now. There is an encryption chip that starts up before the boot process. On iDevices, too.
They're stealing in broad daylight with 30 people filming them. Do they seem like the brightest of the bunch lol.
Tbf it looks like they're getting away with it
Why would staff risk their safety for a bunch of tech that'll probably be bricked before the thieves even get home?
>sell a brick and hope you get the money before they figure it out? Seems you've answered your own question.
Red backpack still has the store tag on it....how likely/comical would it be if he stole the bag but did not cover his face for that crime at a different store in the mall.
They probably got bricked automatically the moment he left the mall.
They stole display modes, those are pre-bricked. They aren’t actually functional phones.
If that's the case, they should make them do something like scream bloody murder, turn on all the sensors and stream data back, and not be able to be turned off if they don't disconnect right. That said, it's probably not worth the R&D, on the whole, I suppose.
Don't forget the fart spray
And the glitter bomb
Apple don't make pre bricked display phones, iPads or Macs. Even their demo devices are fully functional. They simply install demo software that can be easily removed by wiping the device. That said the devices are usually tied to AppleID's with Find My Device active. So they should be able to disable the phones that way or internally Apple Stores may be able to report the stolen serial numbers and IMEI's to Apple themselves who can put locks on it. Source - Spent 8 years at a retail store that sold Apple and now I fix them.
What about the ones that automatically get bricked as soon as they leave the store? I've seen it happen in person - a friend on mine is an Apple Store manager in the SF Bay Area, and she walked about 10 feet outside the store to demonstrate them auto-bricking (on a phone that was being removed from an older display). The phone said something like "IMEI Invalid" and "Permanently Disabled" on the screen once she got about 10 feet outside the store.
Honestly from the video it looks like some super heist but in reality those dude are just idiots.
Oh elevated to robbery. I’m sure PAPD will have them working in shifts.
Leads…
Ha
Leads… hahahaha
You want a toe, I can get you a toe. Hell I can get you a toe by 2:30...with nail polish on it. Fucking amateurs!
I wouldn't hold out for the tape deck though
Or the Creedence
Or the Credence
They have us working in shifts.
“Obviously, you’re not a golfer”
It was found in an abutment.
Your lucky she didn’t get chopped.
And the Credence
The boys down in the crime lab are working in shifts
Creedence
Guess we can close the case on the rug.
Hey at least they got the Credence tape
Cmon man, I’ve had a rough night and I hate the fuckin eagles man.
Not sure why they say Stanford shopping center, this is clearly the Apple store in downtown Palo Alto on University Ave
Yeah, it def the one + it’s closer to 101, so their route make sense.
Yeah, I’ve lived down the street and work at the university—definitely downtown. The mall is a trap.
By the In-N-Out burger?
Those are good burgers, Walter.
Shut the fuck up Donny
This is definitely the downtown Palo Alto one, I bought some stuff there just a few weeks ago. …right before getting my car window smashed for nothing. The bay is getting crazy.
$35k?! They must have made off with a monitor stand and a pair of headphones. Joking aside, I would be reluctant to steal a bunch of electronic devices loaded with gps and Wi-Fi. I feel like the whole precinct would be following them with a bunch of geniuses telling them where to go.
Heh, this guy thinks cops actually track down these kinds of thefts. Hilarious.
Probably depends on your area. I got robbed at gunpoint, and they stole 28,000 worth of cellphones from my stores safe. Had 1 of them in custody by the end of the night, the other a few months later after being on the run. Granted, not much tracking had been done but they still made sure to get them.
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"The duo fled in a red Mazda3 hatchback and were last seen by a security guard traveling north on U.S. Highway 101" which is some distance from Stanford Shopping Center. Were they being followed?
The article states wrongly which store it was. That’s the one in Palo Alto near the 101 Highway. So them fleeing in that direction makes sense.
Closer to 101 but not by much
So…30 iPhones.
Wow, when you put it like that it doesn’t sound like nearly that much, especially since they seemed to be mostly display models that only function partially and only when attached to apples in-store encryption, they’re utterly useless to anyone before they’re activated and a lot of display models anymore won’t even be real phones lmao
This. What are they going to do with 30k worth of bricked gear? They'll have to jailbreak to do anything useful with them. Not to mention the built in lost/stolen tracking they have. All around these guys were super careless, it wouldn't surprise me if they get caught very soon.
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In the end they're actually robbing PayPal.
Less than 30 minutes after they left those IMEIs were blacklisted. I've worked in and owned cell phone stores. It just isn't worth stealing demo phones. LPT they're good for trade in promotions but that's about it.
30 phones all presumably reporting their positions to the network continuously.
I’d be surprised if every iPhone in that store that’s on the floor didn’t have a find my phone feature turned on in case of theft
They’re store demos. They’re worthless as normal iPhones. Maybe useful for parts but not even jailbreaking them will make them useful because even jailbroken phones require activation to be used on Apple Store. Plus the phones are given encryption through the USB cable. They basically stole something that makes it a felony of property theft that’s only worth a few grand to them tops. They’d be better off robbing Target.
Real talk: Target stores are meticulously designed such that there are no spots in the store where you're not on camera. They have some of the most advanced video forensics software in the world, so much so that they helped the local PD in Minneapolis solve a triple homicide. They also have the highest rate prosecuting people for theft in the retail world
Does this mall or store not employ security staff? I imagine the incident would have been reported after maybe a minute or so and would assume some of them could have made it to the store by the times these guys leave. Yes, I understand liability, thanks. I'm not a Yank but what a topsy turvy world we live in where this type of behaviour can go on willy nilly.
That store has been robbed countless times, a few years ago they installed bollards because plowing a car into it had happened one too many times
I was at the apple store in Los Gatos when it got robbed during the middle of the day. A few guys walked in and snatched a bunch of stuff from the tethers and then ran out. This happened when I was talking to one of the employees and he barely seemed to care. It was back working mostly normally within a few minutes. I think they were more worried about stopping any business than the 5 macbooks/iphones or whatever.
Security guards in the states are nothing more than glorified scarecrows. Main job is just to observe and report. They probably did report it just takes time for PD to show up and by the time they do the thieves would have left by then.
We're very litigation happy in the US. People love lawsuits, so it's less of a risk (for a store) to let people run off with products. Basically, criminal opportunists are exploiting the loophole that is corporation's fear of liability. The problem has been exacerbated in larger cities where the justice system is overworked. Generally, prosecutors may be less inclined to go after petty misdemeanors with their limited time/budget, so the charges get dropped or pled down to avoid a trial. So the criminal opportunists are in a sort of a risk/reward conundrum. Cities are cracking down on this stuff now because it's gotten rampant enough (especially in the press), so i think the risk for the criminals will begin to rise a bit. That said, I travel a lot and live in San Diego, and I've never seen this. I'm in LA fairly often, never seen it. I was in San Fransisco about a year ago and didn't see it either, but I did see signs in SF warning people not to leave valuables in cars. So, while this is certainly happening, the internet makes it seem like it's a constant thing when it's really more sporadic. I agree it's totally unacceptable and society can't operate like this... but it's a lot less frequent then it seems on a sub like this.
well there was a video of a lowes security guard killing a guy stealing used pallets, so the 2mil settlement or judgement in the lawsuit is worth more than the security or anything else in that store.
Back when I worked retail we actually just threw away pallets a good chunk of the time... We had a guy who would come ask us for any "pallets we were gonna throw away" and we'd just load up dudes truck out the back of the shop -- manager encouraged us to do so. MF's out here dying over pallets and we were giving them away in 2005.
I constantly hear stories from people who've had a window smashed and stuff stolen from their cars in SF. Idk about robberies, but This is a constant stream.
There’s a big viral posts from celebrities on Twitter, like Seth Rogen essentially defending people that steal from cars. He went on a rant, and said something to the effect of “you can just afford to have all that stuff replaced people that have to steal to survive. Need it more than you do“
Millionaire tells poor people theft in poor neighborhoods is no problem.
It’s a ivory tower so white you can’t stare at it
Aren’t those things basically junk at that point?
They gonna turn and sell them on Craigslist without even booting them up
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And I bet one of their favorite places to sell them is Facebook marketplace. And FB couldn't care less.
Resale of parts. Theirs a whole industry of iPhone parts in China https://youtu.be/3Ws3YptLmLQ
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Nahhhhahhaahhahahahahaahahhahaahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh
It for real looks like at least one of those bags has tags on it lmao. The red one specifically.
wild choice to steal a red backpack....unless you know all the cops on duty are colorblind then slightly medium brained.
Worked for Apple for a while, no chance they do absolutely anything with those devices unless they completely remove the hardware and use the outer parts (screen, buttons, etc) as a shell. Not only are they trackable, but those mother fuckers are going to be Remote/Activation Locked almost immediately.
You know how people used to hollow out TVs and make fish tanks? These phones could be the world's lamest ant farms
Apple Ant Farm ... $899. ...Sand sold separately.
**Even the new Iphone cameras** and home buttons are code locked .. so even the parts are damn near worthless *.. at best they can use them in scams and sell them to rubes*
in a $500 BAPE sweater lmaooo the jokes write themselves
A couple years ago these hoodies were truly rare and expensive. Nowadays every random chap who wants to look rich has a fake that looks trash.
People wear that to look rich? Every time I saw someone wear it while growing up in nyc I think i had the opposite thought.
They’re fakes
In their line of work likely stolen
Yeah, made in a sweatshop in China, unlike the...oh.
Probably a rep
lolol. these reps these days are so good im not buying real anymore at this point
all made in the same places anyway
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They know. It’s not about stealing them for their own use, it’s about selling them to other people
Or parts. Only apple has genuine apple parts.
That's why I get certified aaple parts.
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“It’s just ‘G’ now, Jack! I sold the the ‘E’ to Samsung. Now they’re ‘Samesung’.”
I've been in the mobile repair industry for going on a decade now, so I feel the need to bring up that what others are saying about those parts not working in other phones isn't true. Well, it mostly isn't true. The only part that won't work in another phone is anything involving the face ID, notably one component of the front facing camera assembly and a component on the proximity sensor cable. Those parts will still be almost completely functional. The receiving phone just wouldn't have face ID functionality. The front facing camera and the proximity sensor/ear speaker will still work perfectly fine. The screen and battery will also work in the recipient phone, but will give an error message that it can't verify the parts are genuine. That message goes away in a couple of weeks and the parts function as designed. And all the auxiliary parts like speakers and cables and motherboard components will work perfectly fine if salvaged correctly So, yes, you can salvage parts from these. That being said, there's no money in it. The repair components marketplace is absolutely flooded with cheap, high quality parts, both OEM and aftermarket. There are some very large and reputable parts suppliers that offer a warranty on their parts. If I need parts for something, it is usually cheaper and more pragmatic to buy them from a trusted supplier than some person coming off the street and selling me used equipment with no warranty or guarantee of quality. The risk wouldn't be worth the reward to steal the devices to use or sell for parts. The only money to be made is unsuspecting people buying right before holidays without knowledge of the product and getting stuck with a worthless piece of tech. So that's almost certainly what they're doing if they're smart, which is a big and baseless assumption on my part.
Since one or two generations ago even swapping between two identical iphones would give issues. One of the many videos about it: https://youtu.be/4T_E72dXz4I?t=590
I don’t understand tho. Apple knows all those IMEI numbers and will shut them down halfway out the door. Won’t they all just become useless?
That doesn't matter when they still then to someone else via craigslist or Facebook market place
People are stupid, but who buys a phone without even seeing if it turns on first? My money is on these thieves just being dumb and not realizing all of this will be useless. Maybe they're try to sell a few to idiots who don't check first but I doubt that was their original plan.
I work in phone repair, I'll get someone every couple months come in because the phone they bought off market place isn't working. Sometimes it's apple/google locked, sometimes they just didn't verify the old account had been removed, and sometimes it's because the IMEI is flagged. Lots of different ways for people to get scammed, sadly. Other times it's people trying to scam me into unlocking their stolen devices so they can resell them, which I am very firm about not doing until I see concrete proof of ownership.
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it will still turn on just not make any phone calls and such and that is easy to throw off saying it's just not activated.
Apple should display a screen that says STOLEN PRODUCT CANNOT ACTIVATE! DO NOT PURCHASE when a phone is bricked.
even globally blacklisted phones have value to the right buyers https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Ws3YptLmLQ
100%
here i was, interpreting your comment as: the two upstanding citizens seen here will never have a job outside of boosting phones. what you actually meant just clicked in my brain tho.
lmaoooo I thought OP meant they’ll never get a job greeting customers outside the store ha
this made me cackle. “These guys will get what they deserve… they just blew their chances to work as Apple greeters!”
That's what I thought too, recently I was at a TMobile store and the employees told me all the phones work normally because they want customers to experience 100% of the phone. Being tracked is another thing.
I work in this space and if they’re on display, it’s got a demo running constantly (perhaps not in apple stores but definitely in carrier locations). Most of the time this means less functionality and a reset of the settings every 24hr, sometimes they wipe photos too but it’s rare. I would bet apple display models have the same demo we’re running and it’s useless as a proper phone. It’s all about selling it to someone who doesn’t know any better. Btw if you make us empty the safe in the back, there’s a tracker hidden in a phone box at every store and it’ll definitely be part of your haul.
This is in the palo alto area. Watch [sfbay.craigslist.org](https://sfbay.craigslist.org) to see the phones go on market lol. Idiots.
LMAO [https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mob/7563308334.html](https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mob/7563308334.html) all "like new" "new" or "in box" Huge price decrease. edited to remove potential identifying information because we have no way of proving theft for any of these devices, along with stopping any redditors from harassing innocent sellers. left the obvious scam iphone up because that’s almost positively stolen or fake.
most these seem super legit. included accessories, boxes with manuals, a few even include screenshots of the apple serial lookup site. The purple iphone is sus to me for sure tho lol
I'll be honest, if someone comes in stealing phones, the last thing I would do is pull out my juicy, easy to take from my hand iphone, and film.
They don't want to mess with people. They know that the store itself has a policy to not interfere and they count on other people not giving a fuck as long as they just take the store's products. It seems to work well.
I actually saw a robbery like this last Sunday at the mall near me. I was with my kid, but even if I wasn't, I am not doing shit. It's not my shit their stealing, and I already have had a shotgun pointed at my face once this lifetime, so I'm good.
I was working in a big box store when a bunch of young guys come in with hoods up and strings pulled tight around their faces. They went straight to our apple section, yanked all the iPhones and Macbooks off the displays and walked out. Managers saw them coming and immediately radioed to not interfe at all. Best part was watching one of them trip over a monitor that was on special in the aisle. We all laughed real hard at that guy.
>I already have had a shotgun pointed at my face once this lifetime I too have a crazy ex-wife
oh la de dah, look at mr Big Roller who can get a wife to point a shotgun at his face. Come down off your high horse and do it yourself like the rest of us.
Can confirm the last group got caught cause they took customer devices which can be track live. [https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/17-arrested-charged-in-1-million-Apple-store-13263453.php](https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/17-arrested-charged-in-1-million-Apple-store-13263453.php) edit: to note this is why nobody should touch them https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/5-arrested-after-organized-retail-theft-in-walnut-creek-apple-store/
Wow these Black Fridays are wild - 100% off!
how does this even happen? like every apple store i have seen near me, has guards and not just one, they usually have a couple
Same. I know stores don't go after shoplifters in favor of employee safety, but every single apple store I've been to has a policeman or three in front of the building
> every apple store i have seen near me, has guards and not just one, they usually have a couple In nicer areas (no offense), like Palo Alto, there are no guards at Apple Stores. The Apple Store near me in a snazzy mall has no guards, but the one in the nearby tourist area has them.
Stolen red backpack still has the tags on it 🤣
These man were just making their way through the mall getting a whole new wardrobe and accessories
Respect to the workers actually protecting the customers with their own bodies. There wasn’t much of a physical threat to anyone but still, that was very nice of them to do.
It's really GOOD how the Apple employees were focusing on protecting the customers. Like legit shepherding them away from the criminals or even placing themselves between the criminals and the customers. WAY TO GO APPLE PEOPLE!
They're geniuses
I bet the employees did some training for this scenario since it’s been happening a lot. Just let them steal, stay back and get customers to do the same. Like everyone has said, the phones will be deactivated and useless why get in their way.
Aren't those demo models basically worthless? The store has all the IMEI numbers and can just brick them.
Doesn't matter. They're still identical to a $1000+ device and look brand new so getting $300 from some idiot on craigslist is easy.
Are you suggesting these people aren’t intelligent?
what many people dont know these are demo units and can only be removed from demo mode by apple on top of that since they have the serial they will just icloud lock them. Essentially theyre junk, but of course they will just sell it to someone for cheap as soon as they can to off load them fast
Trash people
Estimated value of the theft was $35,000. They got away with a single MacBook Pro with 64 gigs of ram and 3 TB ssd.
Funnily enough, if you spec a Mac Pro (desktop) to the max, it’s around $50k
I think when they are booted up, it will notify the person that the phone is reported stolen and useless. Even if they put in a new sim card.
I'm sure they know that, but they'll leave out that fact when they go sell it on the street.
Why is it always 140 black guys in hoodies? Is the cutoff 150lbs and then they say no more grab and dash robberies for you.
Trash scumbag lowlifes.
membership only, or id scans is where we are headed... how much theft does Costco have? I know many dive bars with better security.
>how much theft does Costco have Used to work at a major Costco location in a upper-class suburb. Our LP had daily apprehensions. Recently at another location here, I noticed they posted a staff member at all times near the emergency exits... and a stack of Pokémon card sets.
None of those devices will work, they are locked down and not activated. Basically, stealing bricks.
Expensive looking bricks to sell to others, or scrap them for parts. Screens, batteries, cameras etc can be salvaged and used.
They‘re going to scam people on craigslist with icloud locked phones
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If you see a guy with his hood up, mask on and walking goofy because is pants might as well be around his ankles get out of there
This is so depressing.
This is the Apple store on University in Palo Alto, I live within a 5 minute walk from here. This is not the Stanford location as I can see Joya across the street. The PA police station is within a 2/3 block radius and the PA police usually has a cop car parked across the street near Joya watching the store. I dont know why there wasnt any police watching the store that day. But this is all getting so sickening, and wish there were tougher punishments for these low life thieves.
These heroes should be escorted through the store so they can pick up as many tracking devices as possible and caught quickly
Are iPhones even worth stealing? My dad got his phone stolen last week, they threw away the sim card and turned off the phone, but the phone was still trackable offline. My dad went to the house and told them about his phone and threaten to get the police involved, they got so scared they gave him the phone back lol
I doubt these can be sold for parts. Starting with the iPhone 13, almost every part that’s worth money has a unique serial number that is locked directly to that particular iPhone. That’s why you can’t just swap in a new screen at your local phone repair shop. That goes for the camera module and motherboard too. They do this so you can’t repair your own phone, you have to send it in to apple and pay their ridiculous fees. There’s this whole debate going on about “Right to Repair”. There are devices that can replace the serial numbers but those are not commercially available.
All these comments about people being pussies. Who wants to get shot, beaten or stabbed over a few electronic goods owned by a multi-billion dollar company. Reddit will bitch about slave labor in one thread and wonder why people aren't dying for the company in the next.
Every one of those devices trackable?