The iCloud account of an accused murderer contained sex abuse images, a deputy is arrested for AirTag stalking, and a man gets 17 months for iPad thefts, all in this week's Apple Crime Blotter.

This is the latest in an occasional AppleInsider series, looking at the world of Apple-related crime.

How the "mastermind" of U.K. iPhone thefts was caught

A man named Amir Khadikhel has been identified as the "mastermind" of a gang that arranged for more than 60,000 stolen iPhones to be shipped abroad from the U.K.

According to The Times, Khadikhel, identified as "Afghan asylum seeker," supervised a large network of middlemen. The ring "arranged for 181 million [pounds] of handsets to be sent to China and Dubai in less than a year."

That gang is seen as responsible for as many as 40 percent of iPhone thefts in London.

He was caught, the report said, after a man whose phone was stolen "used his telephone tracing app to locate his handset in the depot of the DHL courier company near Heathrow." The stolen iPhone was found in a package containing over a thousand such devices, bound for Hong Kong.

This led to what the newspaper called a "complex investigation that ultimately dismantled an international smuggling network."

Khadikhel and two others are set to be sentenced on May 12.

Is "crime" the real reason the Towson Apple Store closed?

Apple announced in April that it would close three Apple Stores in June. One of which was the Apple Towson Town Center store in Maryland.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against Apple, claiming that the company had retaliated because the employees had unionized.

Apple, in a statement to media outlets when the decision was announced, had pointed to "the departure of several retailers and declining conditions" at Towson Town Center as the reason why it was closing.

Does "declining conditions" mean "crime"? It's certainly been interpreted that way in some quarters.

One Baltimore County Councilman talked in April about the "perception of crime at the mall."

We can say, however, that the Apple Store in Towson has never been the site of any high-profile thefts, break-ins, or other crimes. Nor has that Apple Store ever been mentioned in this column in its eight-year history.

D4vd had child sex abuse images on iCloud, prosecutors say

The American singer known as D4vd, who was arrested in April in connection with a 14-year-old girl who was found in his car, had "a significant amount" of child sex abuse images on his iCloud account, prosecutors said.

According to The BBC, the singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, had his iCloud account searched via a warrant. It resulted in the discovery of offending images in his possession.

Burke has been charged with numerous crimes, including murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child, and the mutilation of remains. However, he is not yet facing charges in connection with the alleged iCloud images.

Deputy arrested for stalking with AirTags

The Volusia Sheriff's Office in Florida announced that they had suspended and later terminated a part-time prisoner transport deputy after he was arrested for stalking his ex by using an AirTag.

The woman, who had a three-year relationship with the officer, "indicated she'd found AirTags in her vehicle and her adult daughter's vehicle dating back to 2025." After the breakup, she had found an additional AirTag on her vehicle, as well as Ring footage of the then-deputy "crawling underneath her daughter's vehicle at her home."

The man had even shown up and stopped behind the victim's vehicle while she was meeting with detectives.

The ex-deputy was charged with stalking and unlawful installation of a tracking device.

Florida passed a law in 2025, cracking down on the illicit use of AirTags for the purposes of stalking.

Seattle man gets 17 months for iPad thefts

A 33-year-old man from Seattle has been sentenced to 17 months for a grab-and-go shoplifting incident in 2024. One in which he took three iPads from a Fred Meyer store.

According to Daily Record News, the man had pled guilty to organized retail theft and two counts of second-degree theft. The man had entered the store's electronics department, asked to see different types of iPads, and then ran off with all three devices.

The same man also admitted his part in two other thefts at Fred Meyer stores, in which he had taken iPads.

Ex-employees accused of stealing MacBooks

Former employees of the MAC.BID store in Macon, Ga., has been accused of stealing MacBooks from the store, with one of them arrested.

WMAZ, which cited an incident report by Bibb County Sheriff's Office, reports four employees were seen on store surveillance stealing seven MacBooks. After employees were confronted by management, one admitted taking two computers and returned them, but a second denied taking any.

One of the employees was arrested on two counts of theft, including one of theft by taking and one of theft by deception. Another employee is wanted for felony theft.

Man arrested for fraudulent iPhone order

Also in Florida, a 40-year-old man was arrested in late April for buying an iPhone 16 Pro Max using someone else's identity and then taking the iPhone from that person's workplace.

According to Tap Into Coral Springs, this happened in October of 2024. Months after that, the victim received a debt collection notice for a purchase he had never made.

The accused thief faces charges of grand theft and criminal use of personal identification information.

Memphis man accused of punching man, stealing and selling his iPhone

A 30-year-old man has been arrested in Memphis for robbery, after police say he punched a victim several times, stole his iPhone, and later sold it in an EcoATM kiosk at a Walmart.

WREG explains the victim claimed to have been "horseplaying" with a woman at a bus terminal, during which she took his pocketknife. After he grabbed the woman's bag, and she told a group of people, one of them, the man who took the iPhone, punched him several times.

The man was charged with robbery.

Two teenagers arrested in Facebook Marketplace iPhone theft

Police in Hamilton, Ontario, arrested two teenagers for an April 11 theft of an iPhone that was advertised on Facebook Marketplace.

According to The Hamilton Spectator, the female victim had arranged to sell the iPhone on Marketplace, with a meeting spot at a gas station, with the seller using the alias "Malakai McCollin."

But when she arrived, the two teenagers "forcibly took the phone from her hands" and fled in a car. The two assailants, aged 15 and 16, were arrested and charged with theft under $5,000.

Police say it was one of 33 Marketplace-related thefts in Hamilton this year.

Uber driver in Nigeria arrested for theft of iPhone he was supposed to deliver

An Uber driver in Lagos, Nigeria, was arrested in mid-April for "allegedly disappearing with an iPhone 16" that he was supposed to deliver.

Newsmakers reports the driver picked up the delivery, canceled the trip while en route, and was unreachable afterward.

A social media user, @Molayoo, had posted on X about what happened:

The subsequent attention helped lead to the man's arrest.