Over the weekend in Belgium thieves made a clean getaway with close to 4,000 iPhones. The market value of that many iPhones, 2 million euros, or $3 million U.S.
The iPhone thieves cut a hole in the ceiling of a warehouse where the devices were being stored waiting to be delivered to Mobistar in time for holiday shopping season. According to Mobistar, local police have zero leads but think twice about landing one of these phones as a spokesperson from Mobistar is promising they will not work.
“We have the serial numbers of stolen iPhones blocked anyway so they can not be used,”"People who want to buy an iPhone, which is best done in an approved outlet and not on street or on the black market.”
In the end, crime does not pay folks…
[Via AppleInsider]
Man goes into Apple Store for help with iPhone. Man gets frustrated with iPhone. Man threatens to shoot iPhone if it doesn’t start working. Man draws attention to previously concealed weapon. Apple Store techie tells manager. Manger calls police. Police arrive. Police arrest man.
No iPhones were injured.
[WPCO 9 via Gizmodo]
A robbery victim has taken advantage of his MobileMe service and put it to good use. A Pittsburgh man, who’s name has been withheld, told police he was forced to turn over his wallet, his PIN number and his iPhone at gun point (Pellet Gun as it turns out) by 3 robbers early Sunday morning. Lacking any tech savvy skills or common sense for that matter, the robbers were clueless about one of MobileMe’s very helpful features, “Find My iPhone“.
After calling the police, the man used his computer and MobileMe to track down his iPhone along with the 3 not so smart criminals having a late night snack at a local restaurant.
Police said they will charge Bryant Rather, 22, of West Mifflin, Brent Ray Potter, 22, of Swissvale, and Myron Knox, Jr., 22, of Homewood, with two counts each of access device fraud, conspiracy, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime. Mr. Rather and Mr. Potter will also be charged with robbery.
Moral of the story: crime doesn’t pay.
[Via Post-Gazette]
A lady in the UK had her gear bag stolen, including her iPhone, laptop, and Nintendo DS, and to rub salt on her wounds, the thief decided to mock her on her own Facebook page:
“I have the laptop, phones ok but a bit scratched itll do, tv was rubbish so I left it , ds was a bonus, now to the porn shop, thankyou toshiba is my favourite make”.
While we hope the thief gets every ounce of karma (and justice) returned to him/her, we also echo Gizmodo’s hope that everyone reading this takes a moment to enable the passcode lock (and Remote Wipe if you’re an Exchange or MobileMe user) on the iPhone, and BIOS/Login passwords on the laptop. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of curses later…
[Telegraph via TechRadar]
Gizmodo made our Friday just a little more bizarrely amusing with a story about a British gang whose DJ made some music, got it up on iTunes (and Amazon) with a 40% commission, and then used stolen credit cards to buy it — making them look popular, and $300,000 “richer” at the same time. Strangest part?
the British police won’t know why they did it until they ask them?
Us neither then.
