Stephen Silver
In the first major Apple store theft since the arrival of the new iPhones, several individuals carried out a robbery in Santa Rosa, and one suspect was caught.
In another of a long series of similar robberies in California, several men rushed into an Apple store in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Sunday and stole merchandise from display tables before running off. But this time, a bystander videotaped both the robbery itself and one of the suspects being wrestled to the ground by security guards and civilians.
The bystander, who uses the online username "Gooneryoda," filmed the videos and later posted them to Twitter, YouTube and Reddit.
"I was at the Santa Rosa Plaza and I saw these six guys in jeans and hoodies making a their way to the Apple Store. I knew something was about to go down so I recorded it," Gooneryoda wrote on r/Apple subreddit, before posting the video of the suspects running into the store:
The user then posted a second video of one of the suspects being subdued, wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by a pair of uniformed officers and two men in plain clothes, in what appears to be a different part of the mall (caution: strong language):
Later in the day, the Santa Rosa Police Department's Facebook page reported that "several thieves entered the Apple Store at the Santa Rosa Plaza mall and ran away with multiple devices."
Dozens of similar Apple store robberies have taken place this year throughout California, and at least two crews carrying out the crimes have been arrested. The thefts have often been caught on store security video, but rarely have they been recorded live by bystanders. The same Apple store, at Santa Rosa Plaza, was similarly robbed in late August, with thieves making off with $35,000 in merchandise.
Law enforcement sources contacted by AppleInsider in recent weeks are unclear on how many crews are at work and if they are connected. One officer, Lt. Robert Boll of the Burlingame Police Department, said there's likely a copycat effect at work.
"They see how easy it is when the news plays the video," he told AppleInsider.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
27 Comments
I'm happy to see at least one person was caught.
"Pleeeeeeaase... Pleeeeeeeaasse!'
Don't do the crime, my brotha...
I hope he's 18 or over... And sings like canary.
Apple products bring the all the boys to yard. So this apple fraud in the news a lot has me thinking maybe apple is paying these kids to risk jail time for a cut of advertising. That’s just my demented mind but you never know what big companies do behind the scenes.
Young thieves like this make my blood boil. . . had 3 MBPros and other Mac stuff stolen from a break-in and never recovered. It's so common place the police won't do anything, CAN'T do anything. . . wish apple had a better way of tracking stolen devises. Find-My-Mac doesn't work if the devise is never logged onto the internet. There are parts of the world that would chop off this kid's hand for stealing. Hmmmmm.
It's acts like these kids do that get both healthcare and welfare check cuts.. perhaps better education and institutions and programs to keep kids out of the streets? Thought that was the whole idea former Gov. Arnold was promoting? Perhaps, look at the French Canadian cities on solutions for some ideas on this double sided issue. Or even in Melbourne or Sydney Australia when it comes to family dire situations and handling them in these crisis. I think someone on the inside of apple is doing this. NOT an issue of just a ring leader to produce benefit losses. A phat federal check to pay apple on a employee apple solutions survey would be more appealing if it was taken to the admin below the Apple Inc. CEO area. Something a bit beyond intel can do. What do you guys think?