Last week in New York City, a man entered the SoHo Apple Store wearing what was visually close enough to the Apple employee uniform, managed to go straight into the electronics fix room, and stole 19 iPhones from the drawer. Another problem that makes the area lucrative for thieves, is that new Apple store employees are trained here. The phony employee walked into the fix room at the store at around 5:30pm. What’s really surprising here is that it worked – I’m rather surprised that Apple employees didn’t notice bulging t-shirts trying hard to exit the building.
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He grabbed 19 iPhones (worth $16,000), and handed it to another thief who put the phones under his shirt.
According to a report coming from DNAInfo, the local store replaced the colorful T-shirts that employees were wearing with blue uniforms, which were supposed to give a more premium look to an otherwise pretty high-class location. For those interested in trying their luck, shirts similar to the ones used by Apple employees can be purchased here. It shows the lack of security Apple stores have and the need to improve them.
While police are still investigating the incident, Apple did not immediately return request for comment.
Brazen stuff, and it is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. One Apple Store, located in Broadway on West 67th Street, was hit twice.
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Three people warded off with 67 iPhones form the Cupertino giants’ Upper West Side store earlier this year. The operation occurred in the UWS store and involved another two accomplices, one of which caused a diversion to distract the clients and legitimate personnel while the second was acting as a lookout. The total value of the iPhones stolen in both thefts was $49,300.
