Armed robbery at Boston Apple Store, 69 phones stolen from festival, and more from the Apple crime blotter

In the latest Apple crime roundup, Find My iPhone solves thefts nationwide — as does a telltale lock screen photo of a smiling couple

The latest in an occasional AppleInsider feature: This week in Apple crime.

A knifepoint robbery on Boylston Street Apple Store

Police in Boston are looking for a man who they say carried out an armed robbery at the flagship Apple Store on Boylston Street. According to The Boston Globe, the man took two pairs of Beats headphones from the store, and knifed an employee on the way out.

69 phones stolen from music festival

69 cell phones were stolen from attendees of the Shaky Beats Music Festival in Atlanta, but were later tracked to an area FedEx store. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a woman whose phone was stolen used the Find My iPhone feature to track her phone to the store, where it was found, along with the 68 others, in a pair of boxes.

Find My iPhone and iCloud solve a theft

In other Find My iPhone news,

">the feature led to the recovery of an iPod in Canada last month

. According to Global News, an iPod was stolen from a car. But soon after, the iPod's owner began receiving photos, taken by the thief, on their iPhone. A Find My iPhone search discovered the location, and police arrested the man, charging him with possession of stolen property obtained by crime under $5,000 and failure to comply with a probation order.

iPhone X smuggled out in pants

Police in Hollywood, Fla., are looking for a man who they say stole an iPhone X from a safe at a Cricket Wireless store. According to Local 10 the man had asked to use the bathroom in the back of the store, grabbed the iPhone from an unlocked safe, and snuck it out of the store in his pants. The man was caught on security cameras.

Picture brings stolen iPhone back to couple

Police in Portland, Ore. recovered a stolen iPhone, but didn't know who it belonged to. Their only clue was the phone's lock screen photo, which depicted a smiling couple. According to KATU, police shared the photo of the couple on social media, someone recognized them, and they got their phone back.

Two other theft victims have taken to Twitter to attempt to catch their iPhone thief:

Had my iPhone stolen in Intu Derby earlier today and this was just uploaded to iCloud. Please RT to help find the culprit. #FindMyIphone #Derby #Intu pic.twitter.com/KusewR9LA6
— Lem (@91lem) May 18, 2018

I've been tracking my dads stolen iPhone all over STL for the past 30 minutes and it's gettin pretty exciting folks pic.twitter.com/bBbhDTpxIa
— Mike (@mcwizzardz) May 13, 2018

42 iPhones taken from Minnesota Target

In what authorities believe in part of a larger ring, 42 iPhones were stolen from a Target in Rochester, Minn. According to KIMT, the two thieves entered a stock room and used bolt cutters in the theft of the devices, which were all iPhone 8 or iPhone X.

25 iPhones in three days taken from Norwegian bar

A bar in Oslo, Norway, appears to have emerged as the unofficial iPhone theft capital of Scandinavia. According to Norwegian website The Local, two men stole 25 phones from customers at the bar over the course of three days, mostly taking them from guests' pockets and bags.

Pennsylvania woman accused of stealing iPads, gun, dog, parrot

A woman in Central Pennsylvania

">has been accused of stealing a wide variety of items

, including two iPads, a gun, cash and even a pet dog and bird. According to Centre Daily, the 18-year-old woman is accused of carrying out multiple break-ins, as well as stealing a talking parrot from a local pet store. She has been charged with 15 separate felonies.

Company general manager improperly bought Apple Watch on company card; pleads guilty to theft-by-swindle

The former general manager of a Minnesota welding company has pled guilty to theft-by-swindle charges, after he was found improperly using a company credit card for over $80,000 in unauthorized purchases, including a $1,000 Apple Watch. According to WJON, the man was specifically confronted about the Apple Watch and some plane tickets, and admitted that "he had made some personal purchases totaling that amount, that got out of hand."

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15 Comments

ascii 5930 comments · 19 Years

About 6 years ago

AppleInsider said:
Pennsylvania woman accused of stealing iPads, gun, dog, parrot

A bunch of iPads, sweeet!
A gun, double sweeeeet!
*dog with parrot on head gives hopeful stare*
Oh, alllll riiiiight, you can come too!

racerhomie3 1264 comments · 7 Years

Apple should really add an Activation lock on AirPods. This should also help curb theft of the AirPods.
Those who agree should send feedback to Apple:
Apple.com/feedback
Direct link:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/airpods.html

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

racerhomie3 said:

Apple should really add an Activation lock on AirPods. This should also help curb theft of the AirPods.
Those who agree should send feedback to Apple:
Apple.com/feedback
Direct link:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/airpods.html

How would that work? I know how the activation lock works with an iPhone, but how could that work with headphones and a case that don't have a great method for connecting to the internet and inputting your iCloud credentials for verification?

What if, for example, my iPhone is lost, stolen, or broken (and they aren't paired to any device); how would I then pair the AirPods to its replacement iPhone if they've been locked to that iPhone.

I suppose that AirPods and their case connecting to Apple device that supports that W-series chip could "phone home" every time they connect but that means that your devices will need to be connected to the internet to pair. Even if it's just for new pairings, that could be problematic.

Then there's always bypassing the benefits of the W-series chip to do the standard BT pairing, which I think is out of Apple's hands since Apple can't make Android, Windows, or any other BT-capable device of pairing headphones "phone home" to see if the headphones have been listed as stolen or not.

I like the notion, but I don't see anything that mentioned that would make it a feasible.

Soli said:

racerhomie3 said:

Apple should really add an Activation lock on AirPods. This should also help curb theft of the AirPods.
Those who agree should send feedback to Apple:
Apple.com/feedback
Direct link:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/airpods.html

How would that work? I know how the activation lock works with an iPhone, but how could that work with headphones and a case that don't have a great method for connecting to the internet and inputting your iCloud credentials for verification?

What if, for example, my iPhone is lost, stolen, or broken (and they aren't paired to any device); how would I then pair the AirPods to its replacement iPhone if they've been locked to that iPhone.

I suppose that AirPods and their case connecting to Apple device that supports that W-series chip could "phone home" every time they connect but that means that your devices will need to be connected to the internet to pair. Even if it's just for new pairings, that could be problematic.

Then there's always bypassing the benefits of the W-series chip to do the standard BT pairing, which I think is out of Apple's hands since Apple can't make Android, Windows, or any other BT-capable device of pairing headphones "phone home" to see if the headphones have been listed as stolen or not.

I like the notion, but I don't see anything that mentioned that would make it a feasible.

Maybe disable functionality completely for Android and other non Apple OSs .The latest firmware should only work for Apple devices.

gatorguy 24614 comments · 13 Years

racerhomie3 said:

Soli said:

racerhomie3 said:

Apple should really add an Activation lock on AirPods. This should also help curb theft of the AirPods.
Those who agree should send feedback to Apple:
Apple.com/feedback
Direct link:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/airpods.html

How would that work? I know how the activation lock works with an iPhone, but how could that work with headphones and a case that don't have a great method for connecting to the internet and inputting your iCloud credentials for verification?

What if, for example, my iPhone is lost, stolen, or broken (and they aren't paired to any device); how would I then pair the AirPods to its replacement iPhone if they've been locked to that iPhone.

I suppose that AirPods and their case connecting to Apple device that supports that W-series chip could "phone home" every time they connect but that means that your devices will need to be connected to the internet to pair. Even if it's just for new pairings, that could be problematic.

Then there's always bypassing the benefits of the W-series chip to do the standard BT pairing, which I think is out of Apple's hands since Apple can't make Android, Windows, or any other BT-capable device of pairing headphones "phone home" to see if the headphones have been listed as stolen or not.

I like the notion, but I don't see anything that mentioned that would make it a feasible.

Maybe disable functionality completely for Android and other non Apple OSs .The latest firmware should only work for Apple devices.

You mean don't sell em to non-iPhone users? That's plainly not Apple's intention.