

Apple Heist Empties Store in Just 31 Seconds - Readmore
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/apple-heist-empties-store-in-just-31-seconds/

======
jasonlbaptiste
The commentary makes it seem like ESPN meets a game show.

In Miami, people steal laptops and they just shrug it off, turn the alarms
off, and go back to work. Saw two get stolen while waiting for a repair a few
months ago. Eventually they called a guard to write it up.

~~~
mitchellh
I used to work at an Apple Store and although while I was an employee I was
absolutely forbidden to discuss this (apple PR wanted to pretend it didn't
happen), I can at least somewhat anonymously divulge somewhat the information
now: My apple store was robbed during Christmas when the power went out.

The store was literally packed to the point where it was a fire hazard, the
power went out for 10 to 15 seconds, and when it came back on, we were missing
nearly every demo iPod and iPhone.

They never found the culprits.

I was impressed.

~~~
philwelch
That's an impressive heist: sneak people in where they won't be noticed in a
crowd, cut power to the store, and in the momentary scuffle of people leaving
you'll never be caught.

Either that, or there was an ordinary power outage and quite a few people got
the same idea at the same time. That's probably more likely since they only
grabbed the pocketable stuff.

------
psadauskas
The article reads like a viral ad:

 _The magsafe cords detached instantly, offering no resistance and leaving
power sockets undamaged._

 _Finally, the stiff unibody shells means that the villains could grab the
notebooks one handed from a corner with no flexing, and no risk to the
internal circuitry, the tough aluminum bodies resisting the jostling clanks
inside the sacks._

~~~
yan
That's hilarious! Now, to jive with the rest of Apple's marketing, it'd have
to conclude with "The heist was pulled off 2.8X faster!"

------
tedunangst
Aren't laptops in stores usually attached with more than just power cords?

~~~
noodle
iirc, yes. i even remember playing with an ipod that had a security cord on it
that i pulled too hard by accident and it set off an alarm.

------
Semiapies
"Empties store"? I suspect the writer has never worked in retail electronics
or even bought anything from an Apple store. Display models are a fraction of
merchandise on-hand.

------
acangiano
iPhone developers are getting pretty desperate these days. :)

------
imichael
Funny that this other heist came up on rolfe-winlker's blog. Quite a contrast.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk-1O31r1Q8&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk-1O31r1Q8&feature=player_embedded)

------
dkersten
heh, reminds me of the nvidia prototype video device thing they demonstrated
at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. It had a
power cord and a tv cord attached and nothing else. It was kinda around the
corner from where the nvidia employees were and there was nobody around. I
stood opposite thinking how easy it would be to grab and run... :-P

Obviously I didn't, but it would have been interesting to own a prototype
handheld video thingy. (they were using it to demonstrate their embedded gpu
for smartphones, it was coool)

------
texel
Holy crap, I used to work at that store!

~~~
lg
And I bought my macbook there! Man, I remember when the only place worth
stealing from in Marlton was K-mart...

------
potatolicious
Flagged. This is YouTube video material, it's not even interesting in any way
other than fluff.

