Burglar who swiped Steve Jobs' wallet, computers quickly traced after powering them on

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
More details surround the recent burglary at the home of Steve Jobs have surfaced in a police report, revealing that the suspect also managed to swipe the late Apple co-founder's car keys and wallet -- which contained just $1 -- along with several Apple devices that quickly gave away his location once they were powered on and connected to the company's servers.

Kariem McFarlin, a 35-year-old Alemeda, Calif., confessed that his crime was one of desperation, explaining that he'd been living out of his car. He told police that when he saw Jobs' home at 2101 Waverly Street in Palo Alto, Calif. was under construction, he immediately seized the opportunity.

After parking his car on a side street, McFarlin proceeded to scale scaffolding to get over the property's cyclone fence. After failing to find an open door to the property, he lucked out by discovering a key in an unsecured storage area that eventually opened the main entrance to the residence.

McFarlin, then wearing white gloves, proceeded to turn over the home under the cover of darkness, stealing two iMacs, there iPads, three iPods, an Apple TV, and more than $60,000 in fine jewelry. No alarm sounded and no lights turned on throughout the duration of the burglary.

Of the fine jewels McFarlin stole and later shipped to an out-of-state dealer, a $30,000 Tiffany & Co. platinum and aquamarine necklace with three strands of aquamarine beads was his biggest score.

He also made off a $28,950 pair of Tiffany platinum, diamond and aquamarine lace-drop earrings, as well as a $28,5000 Tiffany platinum, diamond and aquamarine crochet necklace bezel set with two hundred and forty seven round brilliant cut diamonds weighing approximately five-carats total weight.



Before leaving with the stolen property, McFarlin snagged a key to a Mercedes and then threw an arrangement of lawn furniture cushions from the property onto the opposite side of the property's cyclone fence so they'd serve as a safety net for the iMacs and other Apple hardware which he tossed over the fence and loaded into his own car before making his getaway.



Police were advised of the break-in the following day after the house manager noticed the spare key missing and the house ransacked. Working with Apple, the police quickly tracked McFarlin's location by his IP address once he powered on one of the iPads stolen from Jobs' home. The device immediately connected to Apple's servers for routine updates and identified itself as a device registered to the company co-founder or one of his family members.

In a subsequent interview, Jobs' widow Laurene Powell said she hadn't been living at the home while it was under construction but had left a lot of her belongings in the residence because she was staying nearby.

McFarlin, who maintains he did not know who he was burglarizing at the start of his heist, later discovered amongst the stolen possessions Jobs' wallet -- which contained his drivers license, credit cards, and $1. A letter authored to the formerpolice Apple chief also wound up in McFarlin's possession, cluing him in on the identity of his victims.

Following his arrest, he asked to write an apology letter -- presumably to Laurene Powell and her family -- identifying himself as the burglar and explaining his motives were driven by desperation.

McFarlin was arraigned August 7th and has remained in the county lockup ahead of his next court date for failing to post $500,000 bail. He faces a maximum prison sentence of seven years and eight months, which would include a one-year enhancement for "excessive taking of property."

You can see a complete copy of the 32-page police report here, courtesy of The Daily
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 88
    Well, he's not homeless anymore!
  • Reply 2 of 88


    Does not surprise me that there was only $1 in his wallet. When you think his yearly salary was only $1, it is impressive he still had that $1 in his wallet...

  • Reply 3 of 88
    ewtheckman wrote: »
    Well, he's not homeless anymore!

    You beat me to it!
  • Reply 4 of 88
    Proof read your articles please. Not sure what those monetary figures are and how many iPads.
  • Reply 5 of 88


    Completely agree.... the errors are horrible on this article!

  • Reply 5 of 88


    I concur!

  • Reply 7 of 88
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    year's salary...


     


    oops kjespoko got it first

  • Reply 8 of 88


    That's $1 more than I carry around in cash. 

  • Reply 9 of 88
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    He also made off a $2,8950 pair of Tiffany platinum, diamond and aquamarine lace-drop earrings, [...]

    new math? metric?
  • Reply 10 of 88
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member


    And when he gets out of jail, he will be homeless again and mostly unemployable.

  • Reply 11 of 88
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by thataveragejoe View Post


    That's $1 more than I carry around in cash. 



     


    I don't use cash at all anymore except if I'm at a dodgy store like 7-11 or something but I always carry $40-$100 in case I get held up.  


    It's usually better to carry a bit of cash for the robbers than to get killed because they are mad you don't have anything.  

  • Reply 12 of 88


    Desktop computer, iMac, serial number: unknown


     


    Yeah, because it's "00000001".

  • Reply 13 of 88


    Me too.

  • Reply 14 of 88

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EWTHeckman View Post



    Well, he's not homeless anymore!


    They always say, "never smarten up a dummy". How true!

  • Reply 15 of 88
    noahjnoahj Posts: 4,503member
    I usually do not complain about the little errors in these articles, but this one takes the cake for mistakes:

    "More details [B]surround[/B] the recent burglary at the home of Steve Jobs have surfaced in a police report" should have used surrounding.

    "stealing two iMacs, [B]there[/B] iPads, three iPods" I assume would be "three iPads", although I suppose it could be "their iPads" as well...

    "[B]off a $2,8950[/B] pair of Tiffany platinum, diamond and aquamarine lace-drop earrings, as well as a[B] $28,5000[/B] Tiffany platinum" should be "off WITH a $28,950" AND $28,500

    "32-page[B] please [/B]report here" I assume would be police.

    I won't get into who vs whom, and other niggling details, I know that that level of detail is not really critical, but these errors were particularly noteworthy...
  • Reply 16 of 88


    When he gets out he won't have his car either. If he left it on the street its sure to be towed and impounded. The impound fees will be pretty steep by the time he gets out.


     $1 in a wallet is a lot for someone who's been dead for several months. I would have assumed that his family would have emptied his wallet of any cash or credit cards. I always like to carry cash in case credit/debit systems are out of order or malfunctioning when I need them. Its good to know that I have a fallback.



     


     




     


     

  • Reply 17 of 88
    jonwjonw Posts: 2member


    Why did this article have so many errors? are there now editors on this website? 

  • Reply 18 of 88
    jonwjonw Posts: 2member


    are there NO editors on this website? ...well I suppose that's fitting.

  • Reply 19 of 88

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    More details surround the recent burglary at the home of Steve Jobs have surfaced in a police report, revealing that the suspect also managed to swipe the late Apple co-founder's car keys and wallet -- which contained just $1 -- along with several Apple devices that quickly gave away his location once they were powered on and connected to the company's servers.


     


    Hey, that's an entire years salary in that wallet!!!

  • Reply 20 of 88


    So, Apple will assist the Police in recovering stolen Apple products from the Job's family but will not do so for others. If you look at different Mac forums, there are multiple threads about lost or stolen iphones, iPads and MBP's that owners have used the find my device feature but Police will not help them. I'm sorry to hear about the break in but how about a little justice for all.

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