Robbers steal 70 iPhones in daring daylight heist
How popular is the iPhone? Two men in Orange County pulled off a daylight robbery where they took cash and 70 iPhones. The men were caught, but the iPhones were not recovered.
Two men pulled off a daring daylight robbery last week in Orange County, Calif., nabbing cash and 70 iPhones from an AT&T store.
According to the Orange County Register, the robbery took place at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, so the employees were in the store getting ready for the day. Brandishing a shotgun, the robbers forced the employees to lock the main door and hand over the loot.
Luckily, the employees were not injured in the robbery and both men were apprehended a few days later.
Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said the iPhones were not recovered and speculated that the devices had been shipped to foreign countries.
That is certainly a possibility. There are ways to jailbreak an iPhone or hack the device so it will work on any cellular network. The only thing standing in the way of selling the stolen iPhones abroad is going through the process of unlocking each one.
Although it wouldn't have helped in this particular case, because the phones hadn't been activated, Apple is reportedly working on ways to help individuals find lost or stolen iPhones using its MobileMe service. That feature will be available when the next generation operating system is released this summer.