$370,000 Worth Of iPhone X Units Stolen From UPS Truck Outside Apple Store

DooKey

DooKey

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A group of 3 men in a white Dodge van, broke into a parked UPS van with 313 iPhone X units inside, and loaded them all into the van before departing the scene. San Francisco police believe the value to be around the $370,000 mark. It never ceases to amaze me how far people will go to get an iPhone. Be on the look out for these on for sale/trade forums and don't get scammed because the phones will definitely be blacklisted.

As of the time of writing, the suspects involved in the case had yet to be caught, which means that three well-built individuals are currently somewhere in California with a van full of stolen Apple iPhone X units.
 
Welp,. there goes the ebay value. Glad I got mine sold as a pre-order.
 
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Space_Ranger said:
If the iPhone X sells for $999, how can 313 units be valued at $370k?? Did they use the iPhone's calculator to do that math?
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I doubt these phones are going to be sold at retail. There is ~ 1 month wait for phones right now, so the cost of a phone you can get right now will be higher.

That said, these phones will be blacklisted in short order.
 
Space_Ranger said:
If the iPhone X sells for $999, how can 313 units be valued at $370k?? Did they use the iPhone's calculator to do that math?
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Sales tax? Haha.

So the phones are now worthless really? Unless scamming?
 
Space_Ranger said:
If the iPhone X sells for $999, how can 313 units be valued at $370k?? Did they use the iPhone's calculator to do that math?
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There's two models. 64GB for $999, and 256GB for $1149. Some of them would probably be sold with Apple care, so that's another $200 per device.

313 * ((1149 + 999)/2 + (200 * 0.5)) = $367,462. (assuming half would have been sold with apple care).
 
If they are smart they will ship the to Dubai or overseas where they can sell them for 5x retail no questions asked.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Criminals aren't the smartest lot. Everyone knows a stolen phone will have a bad ESN and not activate. There is no point in stealing them.
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I'm sure most people here realize that phones can be remotely deactivated. But not the kind of people who would consider buying stolen goods.

These crooks only need to sell a few at a fraction of the price to "make it worth it".
 
Don't companies usually have insurance on those shipments anyway?
 
This is definitely bad news. If something is stolen... I do wonder what the UPS website tracking message says. Damaged Shipment?
 
ZiggyDeath said:
I'm sure most people here realize that phones can be remotely deactivated. But not the kind of people who would consider buying stolen goods.

These crooks only need to sell a few at a fraction of the price to "make it worth it".
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Yeah, but if they are going to scan someone by selling them a non-functional phone, they don't even need the phone to begin with.

They could put a rock in a box :p
 
I honestly don't get it. They must know that all those phones are going to be locked by Apple as soon as they find out which specific units those were. Oh, I forgot they are thieves and probably don't care. They'll likely sell them for $800 each to get rid of them quick and then the people who buy them will be fucked when they can't activate them.
 
EchtoGammut said:
If they are smart they will ship the to Dubai or overseas where they can sell them for 5x retail no questions asked.
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They will get shipped to where they don't care, either reprogrammed and sold.

Either your a complete idiot stealing more then a quarter million dollars of merchandise or you knew exactly what you are doing each step.
Dead Parrot said:
Even if the phones are blacklisted, the thieves do have a nice collection of actual Apple spare parts.
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Parta makes sense. Again, sometimes they are worth more in parts especially if it's in high demand. But likely less
 
spare parts are where the money is. You know thousands of butterfingers will be dropping this shit
 
Megaslug said:
How did the thieves even know THAT UPS truck had a shipment of iPhones in it? I smell a rat.
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RTFA it was outside the apple store. Pretty reasonable to assume it would have some in it given that today is the launch day...
 
That is far too coordinated for a typical smash n' grab. Those iPhones are off to Eastern Europe.
 
Ludicrously priced Apple phones stolen from a truck in front of an Apple store. Dunno why but that sounds funny as hell. Gotta be a message in there somewhere.
 
People used to shoot people for their Air Jordan's (or so I was told in the 80's). This is just the same ol' shit. Without the shooting, of course.

People steal shit all the time. This time, it was a shit ton of iPhone's that were brand new on the market. You don't hear about some fucker stealing my car stereo, do ya?!
 
The link in this thread it jacked up, but even then I don't know if there is much more detail. If this was just a typical UPS truck, I really don't understand why they would deliver that kind of shipment without some type of lock. Other large vendors of electronic equipment will package and load up the truck, then put a special lock on the truck that cannot be opened by the driver of the truck at all. Only the people at the other end are able to unlock the truck and unload the contents. Seems like they need to rethink how these are transported...
 
bman212121 said:
The link in this thread it jacked up, but even then I don't know if there is much more detail. If this was just a typical UPS truck, I really don't understand why they would deliver that kind of shipment without some type of lock. Other large vendors of electronic equipment will package and load up the truck, then put a special lock on the truck that cannot be opened by the driver of the truck at all. Only the people at the other end are able to unlock the truck and unload the contents. Seems like they need to rethink how these are transported...
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300 phones is not a whole truck full its was most likely a standard ups truck. It would cost more to have special trucks for Apple then to just write them off.
 
Montu said:
A group of 3 men in a white Dodge van, broke into a parked UPS van with 313 iPhone X units inside, and loaded them all into the van before departing the scene. San Francisco police believe the value to be around the $370,000 mark. It never ceases to amaze me how far people will go to get an iPhone. Be on the look out for these on for sale/trade forums and don't get scammed because the phones will definitely be blacklisted.

As of the time of writing, the suspects involved in the case had yet to be caught, which means that three well-built individuals are currently somewhere in California with a van full of stolen Apple iPhone X units.
Click to expand...
I'm not exactly sure how you activate them though, since that's controlled by apple and I'd assume they know which phones were stolen and can mark them as such.
 
I don't know the specifics about how much control can be had over these phones. What I do know is that for a criminal this is a really good grab. Even in the worse case scenario, say breaking them down for parts at launch time they are worth decent money, lets say 100k total. There are a lot of things criminals do that get them far less than 100k, for instance just a quick google says the average bank robber gets less than 5k. Think about that, you go into a secure facility that may have guards and will have quick access to police and protocols with how to deal with armed robbers and have to carefully plan everything out to escape, or you go jack a UPS truck with no security, they don't even close the doors on some of them lol. Don't be surprised if grabs like this have happened in the past and now that this made big news they increase. It makes a lot of sense, hit a cell phone store in the days before and after the launch of a new expensive phone, grab the small easy to transport boxes which have phones in them.
 
tunatime said:
At least they are PC they have a white guy a black guy and a Mexican.
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Hehe, legit international crime syndicate. On a more serious note, it was a huge issue back in the day if you were a farmer. Thieves would drive a truck at night and steal all your apples etc.

Maple syrup thieves.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...ft-testifies-he-faced-death-threats-1.3837432

Most people live their oblivious lives without realizing there are milllions to be made by doing that "goofy" stuff. You don't have to grow pot to get rich.

Want to hear a story about fromage smugglers? Or onion smugglers?
 
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By comparison, when was the last time you heard about anyone jacking a truck full of Android phones? They can't even give that garbage away.
 
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