In a daring heist, an Apple Store in Washington was robbed of iPhones worth $500,000 (Rs 4 crores roughly) by thieves who burrowed their way through a coffee shop wall. The incident happened late night on Sunday, when the robbers broke into the adjoining coffee shop called Seattle Coffee Gear, entered its washroom, and cut a hole in the wall to tunnel their way through the wall and gaining access to the Apple Store.
The thieves were successful in bypassing Apple Store’s security system to steal a total of 436 iPhones worth around $500,000. The coffee shop’s owner Eric Marks (via Seattle’s King 5 News) tweeted about the burglary. He said that two men broke into the coffee store to cut a hole in washroom wall of the shop only to access the adjacent Apple Store.
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“I would have never suspected we were adjacent to the Apple Store, how it wraps around I mean,” Marks told the News website. “So, someone really had to think it out and have access to the mall layout.”
Police received a video footage of the theft but it is part of the investigation and therefore has not been released in public. The thieves did not lay their hands on any other products except the iPhones.
This is not the first time that an Apple Store has been targeted by thieves with similar incidents reported in other parts of the world. Last year in November, a case was reported wherein thieves managed to steal 125 iPhones worth about $95,000 from the hands of a small scale iPhone seller who frequently made large purchases from Apple Store for his small business. Though the victim tried protesting, thieves managed to run away with one bag full of iPhones.
Apple is set to open its first-ever offline store at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai. Apple India website cofirmed the news by stating, “Hello Mumbai. We are getting ready to welcome you aboard our first store in India. And raring to see where your creativity takes you at Apple BKC.”
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