Four men walked into the downtown Palo Alto Apple store on Tuesday afternoon and snatched 22 iPhones valued at $16,000, a Palo Alto Police spokesman said.
The men walked into the store, at 340 University Ave., at about 4 p.m. and yanked the iPhone 6 mobile devices from their displays, ripping out the security cables tethering the merchandise. No one was injured, police officer Marco Estrada said.
The men fled the store and were last seen running east on University Avenue. Police swiftly arrived to the scene, but were unable to locate the suspects.
The men are described as black males in their early to middle 20s. They all wore white T-shirts, dark-colored sweat pants and dark baseball caps. One man wore a red hat. All were about 6 feet tall with thin builds. Two of the men had longer hair and two had short hair, Estrada said.
Police continue to investigate the case. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Palo Alto Police Department dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be sent by email to paloalto@tipnow.org or by text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
Find My iPhone?
It appears that no one was hurt and I’m glad to feel that way.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Modern iOS devices have Activation Lock which basically renders the device useless if the thief tries to reset or erase the device. Whether or not the demo store units have the same lockdowns in unknown; it’s entirely possible that Apple disabled those features for the demo units, not expecting them to get ripped off.
Or maybe Apple and the PAPD are tracking the culprits right now. I have noticed that the demo store units connect via WiFi and not cellular data, so it is unlikely that these devices would have a cellular data connection at this moment.
In any case, I hope that the culprits are caught and receive the proper punishment. There is no reason why shoppers should feel unsafe, especially from a brazen mid-day theft such as this one.
Surveillance videos?
Not exactly what I heard on the police radio, but close enough.
“They all wore white T-shirts, dark-colored sweat pants and dark baseball caps.”
ah, pledge mission
“They all wore white T-shirts, dark-colored sweat pants and dark baseball caps.”
Team fund raiser?
Kill Switch anyone? GPS Tracking? Oh well. . .
Unlock and ship overseas. Easy to do.
This is ridiculous. We are like sitting ducks. One great big treasure chest to plunder at whim.
I hope PAPD didn’t get called away from a lemonade stand
I hate to say this, but many businesses are posting signs saying no hats or hoodies in the store/bank/whatever. Of course, someone has to be watching and denying entry. How can cameras be useful when faces are obscured by a hat?
Don’t tell me Apple does not have video surveillance? Perhaps they do and footage will become available?
The no “hats or hoodie’s” comment is disturbing. Do we really want to go down that path? It’s awfully close to a profiling stereotype of the worst kind. I personally will not visit a business that posts such a sign.
@KCH – In total agreement with you. That’s definitely profiling. I wear a baseball hat and a hoodie almost everyday during the cooler months and I’m a tax paying Palo Alto homeowner. Fortunately I have never seen any signs like that anywhere around here and I’m certain I would have noticed if signs like that were posted.
@Becky Stillwell – Can you give us an example of where you have seen such signs in this area?