Bad apples steal iPhones in raid
Date September 16, 2012
THERE are many ways for Apple fans to obtain the company's products. You can order them online, drop by an Apple Store during normal business hours, or even pay someone to camp out in front of a store overnight on your behalf so you can be the first to get your hands on a vaunted new gadget.
Each of these approaches has its adherents and detractors. But it must be said that each of these methods is superior to the one employed by a group of burglars in Temecula, California, last week.
Surveillance footage from the Temecula Apple Store shows a BMW ramming the shop's glass doors and ploughing into the display tables, sending iPhones and iPads flying. A thief leaps out and begins scooping up as many of the devices as he can collect, ignoring the pricier MacBooks at the back of the store (lending anecdotal support to studies showing that today's youth increasingly prefer mobile devices to laptops).
Meanwhile, the driver discovers that backing out of those futuristic all-glass storefronts isn't as easy as barging in. The BMW finally manages to make its getaway, albeit with damage surely exceeding the value of a bunch of stolen iPhones - especially since the burglars staged the heist a week before the iPhone 5 launch, at which Apple announced the current model's price would drop to $US99 ($A93) on a two-year contract.
Worse, the damage included two flat tyres, which stymied the getaway, and a lost licence plate, which remained at the scene.
Police nabbed a suspect hours later, perhaps on his way back to retrieve the licence plate, according to the Temecula Press-Enterprise. He had in his pocket the keys to the car, which he had abandoned after a can of Fix-a-Flat failed to remedy the second flat tyre.
The suspect, 22-year-old Equonne Howard, pleaded not guilty last week to multiple felony charges. SLATE
