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Crime Iphone Apple

Thieves Tunnel Through Coffee Shop Wall To Steal $500,000 In iPhones From Washington Apple Store (macrumors.com) 48

Posted by BeauHD from the mission-impossible dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: An Apple Store at the Alderwood Mall was burgled last weekend, with thieves infiltrating the location through a nearby coffee shop. According to Seattle's King 5 News, thieves broke into Seattle Coffee Gear, went into the bathroom, and cut a hole in the wall to get to the Apple Store backroom. The burglars were able to bypass the Apple Store's security system by using the adjacent coffee shop, stealing a total of 436 iPhones that were worth around $500,000.

According to Seattle Coffee Gear manager Eric Marks, the coffee shop is not noticeably adjacent to the Apple Store because of the way that the store is laid out. "I would have never suspected we were adjacent to the Apple Store, how it wraps around I mean," Marks told King 5 News. "So, someone really had to think it out and have access to the mall layout." Police were able to obtain surveillance footage of the theft, but as it is part of an active investigation, it has not yet been released. Nothing was stolen from the coffee shop, but it will cost $1,500 to replace locks and repair the bathroom wall.
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Thieves Tunnel Through Coffee Shop Wall To Steal $500,000 In iPhones From Washington Apple Store More

Thieves Tunnel Through Coffee Shop Wall To Steal $500,000 In iPhones From Washington Apple Store

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  • What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pinky's Brain ( 1158667 ) on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:03PM (#63433786)

    Won't these all be locked the moment they phone home?

    • Re: What's the point? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:09PM (#63433800)

      My guess is either parts or selling them on a Russian flea market. Sure, they'll be deactivated as soon as they phone home, but by the time the buyers realize that their money is already long gone.

      • I was wondering how this could still be a thing, and I think you answered my question. It sounds like the modern day equivalent of those speakers that shady characters sold from vans. They'd say they were some name brand $400 speaker, but it was a fake cabinet with $50 RadioShak guts. The scheme was a vivid illustration of the saying that "you can't con an hones man", because the victims assumed the speakers were "hot", they were not likely to complain to the police for fear that the had willingly fenced

        • There are many obviously fake iPhones in use in China. The outside looks like an iPhone but the OS isn't even a meaningful Android distribution.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        My guess is either parts or selling them on a Russian flea market. Sure, they'll be deactivated as soon as they phone home, but by the time the buyers realize that their money is already long gone.

        As parts, it's going to reinforce the position that parts need locking down.

        I mean, it's probably an aspect of Right to Repair no one's really thinking of - are the parts iFixit sells legitimate? Because in theory, if iFixit were to buy up those stolen iPhones, part them out, then Apple could demand from every iFi

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      False flag operation by BIG COFFEE.

      Notice there's a quote in the summary from the store manager but none from Apple.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      I suspect there is a huge market for parts in light of new laws requiring user repairable devices

      In particular Apple makes a big deal about how hard it is to get secure screens. Now someone has a judge stock. And a good deal on replacements.

      If nothing else, batteries.

      • You make a good point, the market Apple created in phone repairs as motivated crimes like this, people and markets are like squeezing sand, the harder you squeeze the more flows out between your fingers

        • You make a good point, the market Apple created in phone repairs as motivated crimes like this...

          Given Apple's penchant for tracking things, it wouldn't surprise me if the most desirable parts have serial numbers that are reported to the main processor. So even the parts may not be usable; they might be only a software update away from identifying themselves as stolen, at which time Apple could easily hobble or brick the phone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Pretty much all parts have serial numbers. I do not think you can use the parts either. Maybe dumb buttons or screws, but electronics? Forget it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Yeah... Stealing iPhones wasn't very smart, because the serial numbers are easily tracked and remotely disabled.

      They would have been better off stealing a bunch of "dumb" tech like a bunch of Apple USB laptop chargers. You could probably unload those on eBay for years without getting caught.

      • 500K if the devices could be sold at retail prices. The parts maybe 5 to 10%. A lot of effort and risk for maybe 50k if that. Oversees jail broke devices in non aligned countries like Putin pals have to ship them and pay multiple middlemen which would also push down value to 10% range. It will be amusing to see who did it and how they thought they could profit. More amazing if they get away with it and made more than 50k.
    • I was going to say the same thing. Considering how easily Apple can make a device useless through the iCloud lock, Iâ(TM)m surprised anyone would bother.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. iPhones are pretty much worthless after being stolen. Non-activated ones even more so. You can probably not even use the parts.

  • Mall repair labor is that low?

  • Because the guts will all be listed as stolen on Apple's servers and most of it won't work whether whole or parted out.

    • I’ll bet they jailbreak them and build them into a beowulf cluster mining dogecoins.

      • I’ll bet they jailbreak them and build them into a beowulf cluster mining dogecoins.

        Nah. That's how you recycle valuable electonic parts from broken & crashed TESLA cars.

  • "Someone really had to think it out" (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From TFA we get this gem:

    I would have never suspected we were adjacent to the Apple Store, how it wraps around I mean," Marks told King 5 News. "So, someone really had to think it out and have access to the mall layout."

    But a short (~2 sec) observation from Google Maps shows that the Apple store and coffee shop are adjacent to one another. and share a common wall. *sigh*

  • "So, someone really had to think it out and have access to the mall layout." Like look at Apple Maps and notice it is right next door? Have some kind of sense of direction?

    It is hard to imagine the value of an iPhone stolen from Apple has a value of over $10 for the thieves... and even more surpising that there are no motion sensors in the stock room.

    • Yeah that comment is really really stupid. They are very much noticeably adjacent. If they were trying to say that it's not obvious the store rooms are adjacent in the way they are then such commercial building plans are usually freely available on request from the council as part of the store's development permit.

  • How do we know they didn't tunnel from the Apple Store to steal $5,000,000 worth of expensive coffee shop coffee (only a few cups at current prices)?

  • How electronically serialized is everything in an iphone. I know there's the IMEI, but can the phone read a serial number for a battery or a screen? If not, sure, they're still worth a chuck, but if so, they're basically worth the melt down value.
  • All the IMEI and/or serial numbers will be blacklisted so they cant be used as phones, good for nothing
    • Is IMEI blacklisting enforced around the world? These might be usable in certain hostile countries. Or the microprocessors stripped out and sold to Russia?
  • In the sense that "see how good and desirable our smartphones are, people not only wait for days and nights in a line, but even break walls to get them. And you are hesitating to pay some meager two thousand dollars for a piece!".

  • >"The burglars were able to bypass the Apple Store's security system by using the adjacent coffee shop"

    1) So their "security system" had zero motion detectors or beams. Great system there.

    2) No, there was no tunnel, it was simply two cuts in a simple drywall wall. Give me a break.

    3) $500k worth, is maybe retail sale value, not wholesale, and certainly not black market value.

  • It would be good to know the real names of the coffee shop and the apple store owner.

  • Forgive me, please, but current Iphone prices are outrageous.

  • $500,000 for 436 iPhones = $1,146.79 average cost per unit. I have NEVER paid anything close to that price for a new iPhone ever. Either people pay more in Washington or the high end of Apple costs much more than I thought. Either way, it begs the question, is everyone a thief in this scenario?
    • You made me curious. You can spend as much as $1599 if you want the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of storage. But presumably they stole a mix of models.

  • It's reassuring to see a good old fashioned work ethic in play here, even if we had to witness thieves being the ones putting it to use.

    THIEF "First Heist" Clip (1981) James Caan

    https://youtu.be/SCaz3HEoU0U [youtu.be]

  • Haha. This was not like the movies. There was no tunnel. There was no brick wall. This was just drywall on each side with some cottony sound insulation in between. They just cut open the drywall.

  • ...that any stolen phone can EVER be used?

    Maybe this is a stupid question, but I presume that phones have some sort of burned-in mac address in their CPU, so that when phones #123456-#127890 are stolen the manufacturer just says "ok brick those phones".

    If not, why does we have to go through all the stupid fucking registration steps not just for our SIM card but for the phone too?

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