iPhone, Sidekick make popular heist targets

In what might be irrationally described as a wave, rash, flood, or deluge, two separate cases of utter and complete phone theft have cropped up this week. The first concerns $8.2-million worth of T-Mobile handsets which apparently have disappeared from one of the company's warehouses. According to an internal email sent to dealers, someone made off with 36,000 phones (most of which were Sidekicks), and the telco is now in the process of tracking the devices via IMEIs in hopes of getting back the lost goods. In other thievery news, two potential Darwin Award World Stupidity Award recipients plotted to steal 300 iPhones destined for Hong Kong right off of the truck that they were delivering them on. Following the heist, the men quit their delivery jobs, purchased diamond-studded Yankee earrings and matching cars, and then were promptly apprehended when the hastily-wrapped reams of paper they sent instead of the phones were spotted in Cathay. Gold-plated hats off to you, gentlemen.

[Thanks, Paul B]

Read - T-Mobile gets jacked, around $8.2M in phones vanished like a David Copperfield act
Read - Two Baldwin men arrested in stolen iPhone caper

[snitch @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:10PM]

well it takes balls to buy a stolen iphone on the street, then activated throw itunes which sends apple all your info, really. i wont even buy one out of ebay with out a receipt

[majortom @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:09PM]

an obvious outside job

[aguiluz @ Jan 22nd 2008 10:09PM]

Do you mean:

"An obvious INSIDE job?"

That's because I think these are T-Mobile employees behind the 8.2M vanishing act.

And, if I am an "underpaid" employee and I am smart enough to jack a helluva amount of iPhones right in the truck and under the guard's nose and replace them with reams of paper, I can be presumably smart enough to lay low for a while to avoid the heat.

But, as any person would do, I prefer to work for my own goods. Crime does not pay.

[Technology @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:12PM]

Dang, before I read this I thought grand theft auto was to comoning to the iphone as a game. I guess it's still coming to iphone, just not in the way I'd like.

[chainofcommand02 @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:12PM]

*heavy sigh* The Darwin Award is given to those stupid people that either kill themselves or otherwise render themselves incapable of reproducing. Not stupid people that can't plan out their heists correctly.

[derX @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:37PM]

Would *you* reproduce with someone dumb enough to "plan" such heists?


Thought so.

[chainofcommand02 @ Jan 22nd 2008 9:15PM]

Would I get an iPhone?

[aoeu00 @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:13PM]

You have that font installed? :D

[Joe @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:17PM]

I thought for a sec that two Baldwin brothers were arrested for stealing iPhones!

Ok. Nvm

[Brent @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:19PM]

36,000? Nobody there noticed while someone loaded an entire semi? I think if I had a warehouse with at least 8.2m in goods in it I'd get enough security that a freaking truck couldn't go undetected. That's just embarrassing. If I was T-mo I'd eat the loss just so that no one ever knew about it.

[Matt @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:36PM]

The Darwin Awards are only given when someone removes himself from the gene pool in a stunning bout of natural selection at work. Stealing a bunch of phones doesn't count. :)

[CBXweb @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:40PM]

Hey, I found one of the kid's myspace profile. Major lawls?

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=32509674

[Brent @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:05PM]

Online Now!

Damn it's tempting to talk to him...

[Tyson @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:11PM]

Haha wow, it said he was online a minute ago...

[Nick @ Jan 22nd 2008 11:09PM]

Nice to know that he doesn't have any weaknesses

[Gibson @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:56PM]

RIP HEATH LEDGER

[aoeu00 @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:59PM]

But will Engadget post a story spin on this?

[painty @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:23PM]

It'd be hard to work in Apple reference...

[Brent @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:37PM]

"Heath Ledger, 29, was found dead in a New York apartment with a bottle of sleeping pills and an iPhone. An autopsy will be performed to determine if cell phone radiation killed the actor."

[Bevon Findley @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:19PM]

dumb and dumber lol

[Gadget Chick @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:50PM]

i live in baldwin! lmao.

[producerism @ Jan 22nd 2008 9:10PM]

i totally read this as "iphones make popular poltergeist targets"

imagine my disappointment at the obvious article that followed.

[Virtuous @ Jan 23rd 2008 1:46AM]

TMo deserves to get taken given their lax security.

[Mo @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:15AM]

i might have bought one.. i saw a local add for a sidekick LX for dirt cheap ,it sounded shady as heck. i called and met up with the guy. i ended up buying it for $80 which is some $300 cheaper than ebay. he said he needed the money and he had morephone but this is way out in oregon. i wonder if it's one of them

[Brent @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:12AM]

Nah, people (read: employees) steal phones anywhere and everywhere. Good shrink numbers are 1% across the industry, that's still 1 in 100 phones walking off.

[Mo @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:15AM]

yeah this guy was shady, had bunch of elcetronic and barely spoke english. looked liek Carlos Mancia's uncle

[Jnetty @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:44AM]

Baldwin, NY is the town next over to where I live.
Man those guys were dumb.