We reported on two iPhone thefts at the Upper West Side Apple store this year that appear to have exposed a pretty massive security issue: if someone walks in wearing an Apple shirt, they can casually walk out with armloads of merchandise.
On the afternoon of Feb. 16, a woman walked into the Apple store at 67th street and Broadway with an Apple shirt on and took eight phones, while one accomplice distracted employees and the other served as a lookout.
In a similar heist last Tuesday, the thieves swiped 59 phones, as we reported last week. A man was wearing the Apple shirt this time, and he grabbed them from a storage drawer at the Genius Bar downstairs, according to the Post, which divulged more details in a story today.
“He handed the batches off to a female accomplice hiding out in a nearby bathroom, where she stuffed them into a duffel bag, the source said. The third male crook acted as a lookout.
A clerk finally noticed the ruse and called security, but the trio had already fled.
The stolen phones weren’t tagged with sensors and were unlocked. The crooks may have targeted the shop because it’s a training location, where “nobody would question” an unfamiliar worker in blue, the store source said.”
