iPhone X's Stolen; Thieves Make Off With $370,000 Worth of iPhone X Units
There will be about 313 less iPhone X units available for a San Francisco Apple outlet, after three men succeeded in stealing hundreds of the new devices from a UPS truck parked outside the store on Wednesday, Nov. 1.
These units were supposed to go on to the shelves of the Apple Store in Stonestown, San Francisco, in time for the launch of the iPhone X last Friday, Nov. 3. Each device costs $999 and up, which means that the robbers have made off with roughly $370,000 worth of Apple devices, as CNET reports.
Three persons, described as "husky" men with faces hidden in "hooded sweatshirts," drove up in a white Dodge van before breaking into the UPS truck parked before the store, at somewhere between 2:15 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1.
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They have not yet been arrested as of this time.
It's not yet clear whether these iPhone X units, numbering about 313, will work out of the box, or if they will be remotely disabled by Apple. The company has not yet revealed if they have the capability to shut them down via a remote lockout feature.
According to Captain Rick Yarid of the San Francisco Police Department, the robbers seem to have advance information about the delivery. "It appears [they] knew what they were looking for," Yarid said, as quoted by Engadget.
"Given the dollar value in the incident itself it appears it was planned," he added. If they have this much knowledge about the delivery, it's possible that they also already knew how to change the IMEI serial number of the devices.
This is a sizable hit to the supply of iPhone X units in the area, especially late this year when high holiday demand and insufficient production could lead to shortages of the new flagship handset.
