Thieves strike Palo Alto Apple Store, two days in a row
Days after Tim Cook appeared at the opening of the Palo Alto location for the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max launch, the store was robbed Saturday afternoon, and then again the following morning.
The recent epidemic of Apple Store thefts throughout California have reached the location in Steve Jobs' hometown of Palo Alto- the day after CEO Tim Cook appeared at the store for the launch of the new iPhones.
On Saturday afternoon, according to Palo Alto Online, a group of eight young men took "new demo iPhones" as well as iPads, before fleeing in multiple cars. Then, in a separate theft discovered early the following morning, someone shattered the store's front door and made off with another $50,000 worth of iPhones and iPads, the site said.
Cook, as he often does for the first day of new product releases, visited the store on Friday, counting down to its opening and posing for selfies with customers.
The Palo Alto store, which Apple described in a 2010 filing as a "prototype" store, reopened in June of this year following extensive renovations.
Thefts have been taking place at Apple Stores throughout California for most of this year, leaving law enforcement authorities unsure of just how connected the thefts are. A bystander videotaped one theft in Santa Rosa last week, as well as the aftermath, in which two security guards and two civilians subdued and handcuffed one of the thieves. Most of the thefts have followed the template of the first Palo Alto crime, with groups of thieves running into the store during business hours, grabbing items, and running out. Afterhours break-ins have been much less frequent.
A San Francisco Chronicle report this week found that a total of at least $281,000 worth of merchandise was taken from Bay Area Apple Stores between late August and late September.
The recent epidemic of Apple Store thefts throughout California have reached the location in Steve Jobs' hometown of Palo Alto- the day after CEO Tim Cook appeared at the store for the launch of the new iPhones.
On Saturday afternoon, according to Palo Alto Online, a group of eight young men took "new demo iPhones" as well as iPads, before fleeing in multiple cars. Then, in a separate theft discovered early the following morning, someone shattered the store's front door and made off with another $50,000 worth of iPhones and iPads, the site said.
Cook, as he often does for the first day of new product releases, visited the store on Friday, counting down to its opening and posing for selfies with customers.
The Palo Alto store, which Apple described in a 2010 filing as a "prototype" store, reopened in June of this year following extensive renovations.
Thefts have been taking place at Apple Stores throughout California for most of this year, leaving law enforcement authorities unsure of just how connected the thefts are. A bystander videotaped one theft in Santa Rosa last week, as well as the aftermath, in which two security guards and two civilians subdued and handcuffed one of the thieves. Most of the thefts have followed the template of the first Palo Alto crime, with groups of thieves running into the store during business hours, grabbing items, and running out. Afterhours break-ins have been much less frequent.
A San Francisco Chronicle report this week found that a total of at least $281,000 worth of merchandise was taken from Bay Area Apple Stores between late August and late September.
Comments
Wonder if they're actually doing that yet, I mean, seemed like an oversight a long time ago...
The kind of people who commit such brazen acts are taking advantage of the society they live in and apparently do not contribute to in any valuable way. Arm the guards, put a man trap in at the entrance and tell the guards to go for a head shot if need be.
Enoigh already. Eventually, someone will get hurt because of these “young men”.
You never read about thieves stealing Androids devices. Samsung spends many millions advertising its Android devices, and still has to lower prices to move them.
Apple may lose a Million dollars worth of equipment throughout the year, but they get publicity worth much, much more, most importantly "iPhones are so desirable gangs stage mass thefts to get them".
Bet Dollars to doughnuts they are armed, and not with the Apple gear they heisted. This is probably why Apple lets them go, but this is getting out of hand and will present a danger to customers.
I witnessed what has to be the most ignorant robbery in history years ago in a strip mall with a friend when some “young men” decided to rob a liquor store on a Saturday. What they did not check out was the fact that a gun shop was 2 stores down the strip mall filled with well armed customers more than ready to use their weapons. By the time the PoPo arrived they were outside on the pavement spread eagle face down and surrounded by customers of the gun shop.
To my knowledge, that liquor store has never had a robbery attempt since and it is not in a great neighborhood.
The moral of the story is - if they think someone will drop them, they will not try to hit that store. Apple can afford high quality security.
So...no...not a good anti-theft policy for Apple to attempt.
Second, Apple needs to make it known that these devices are worthless if stolen (although I suppose the parts are worth something to a phone chop shop).
Third, Apple just needs to hire an off duty officer to be outside the store. Undercover police officer is what I would do to catch them. Or have a uniform officer sitting at a nearby table drinking coffee or something.
Apple needs to stop the madness as they are creating an environment which INVITES these criminals and could result in an employee or customer getting hurt. If it was a one off or two off situation then the "stand down" policy is reasonable, but now it is attracting crime and I could see liability for doing nothing.
You are thinking on trivial and not quite deterrent solution. Those thieves do not give damn about using Apple iPhone to be cool - thy think about getting money from this.
Placing highly visible guards both inside and outside the stores should increase the perceived risk for potential thieves. Use of multiple high resolution cameras may make identification of thieves easier.
However, asking regular Apple retail employees to intervene is a non-starter. The risks are too high. As customers, we want the retail employees to be friendly and accessible, and not appear as potential enforcers.
Apple is putting their customers at risk with all these robbery's. At some point, someone is going to get hurt. I say Mount all the phones and computers in a mount that's mostly open, but that you can't just pick up the phone or easily cut a cable, or rip it off the table. That can be done!!! For those that want to be able to pick up and hold a phone, can see one of the people working there that can hand them the phone to feel. One that is normally locked up. You you have dummy phones. That are the same size and weight that you can have locked on a cable for people to feel. But it's not a real iPhone. Tee Real iPhones are Mounted in a way that it takes a lot of effort and TIME to take 1 iphone, let alone a bunch of devices!!! You really need to make it much harder for these criminals to steal anything. Once you do that, they'll stop with this garbage.
This can't just keep going on.