Burglars swipe laptops, iPhones from Seattle Apple Store

Apparently not willing to wait for those rumored new ultraportable MacBooks, some burglars recently broke into the Apple Store at University Village in Seattle and made off with a number of laptops that had completed servicing, along with an "unknown stock" of refurbished iPhones. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, police arrived on the scene Monday morning and found a large hole in the ceiling of a technicians' room, with the entire office "in disarray." From the sound of it, it seems that the thieves may have been after more than just the laptops themselves, with at least one of the laptops reportedly "packed with personal information." No word on any leads just yet, but police say they might contact those who had their laptops stolen as part of the investigation.

[Via Techmeme]

[HineyWipe @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:11PM]

A clever detective, just might start checkin with ebay...

[cochell @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:13PM]

maybe now apple will use their "technology" to track down those stolen ipods.

[JC @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:13PM]

Huh, guess they read Engadget this morning and found out they can unlock the iPhones.

[The General @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:23PM]

Bastards.

[taylor @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:42PM]

Thats pretty crazy - I was there yesterday!

I'd be worried for all the people who hadn't had their drives zero'd yet.

[Praveen @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:42PM]

Hmmm... Seattle... Apple stuff stolen...

[pagercam @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:43PM]

"entire office "in disarray.""
Sounds pretty normal to me.

[John Stracke @ Aug 23rd 2007 1:56PM]

They *might* notify the victims?

[Siva @ Aug 23rd 2007 2:19PM]

Just last week, my home town Apple Store was burglarized (in Kansas City). We were there looking at the new iMacs on Saturday and the store was burglarized Monday at 3:00 AM. Apple might need to start getting some security guards even during off hours.

[Adam weindling @ Aug 23rd 2007 2:38PM]

Yeah back to the kansas city thing. I was in the store yesterday and they caught the guys who did it. They came in to get a powercord and brought in the computer and it still had the store desktop on it. Idiots.

[Siva @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:06PM]

Wow - talk about stupid criminals. Did they fix the store up or is it boarded up? How can anyone think about breaking into such a beautiful store?

[Max @ Aug 23rd 2007 2:23PM]

Apparently this was the only way uncle Bill G would get himself an iphone! Imagine the story-line if he were spotted in the line on the day of its' release!

[Enzo @ Aug 23rd 2007 2:37PM]

Hmm I'm guessing Steve Jobs would just give him one... if he actually wanted one.

[John Doe @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:04PM]

Only the fanbois and the fashion sluts give a shit about the iPhone.

[Ayle @ Aug 23rd 2007 2:43PM]

*cough*imei lock*cough*

[waiownsyou @ Aug 23rd 2007 2:57PM]

This is exactly why there are no Microsoft stores!

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:40PM]

Or maybe that's because the only hardware Microsoft makes are keyboards and mice

[waiownsyou @ Aug 23rd 2007 6:12PM]

And video game consoles and MP3 players and fingerprint readers and game controllers and more.

[Sage @ Aug 23rd 2007 5:56PM]

Apple store, break in, roof, laptops, personal info ...

Sounds like somebody were inspired by the movie "Breaking and Entering."

[ralf @ Aug 24th 2007 4:00AM]

Stupid question:
How hard is it to remove a harddisk from an Apple laptop?
I thought it is normal procedure to remove the harddisk befor giving a laptop into service...
It is at least the standart procedure with thinkpads.... (No brand war intended, this is just what I have experience with.)

r.