Oh, shoplifters of the world -- you're not going to unite and take over with these kinds of tactics. A Kirksville, MO. man was arrested on Thursday for trying to boost a $517 Viore (yeah) LCD television by swapping the UPC tag with one from a $3.16 bottle of water. Apparently, cashiers weren't fooled by the admittedly paper-thin maneuver, and after four swipe attempts, a replaced paper spool, and one PA announcement for a store manager to come to register 14, they had the super-genius switcher thrown in the big house. If convicted, the man faces up to seven years in prison plus a hefty fine... and the lifelong shame of having tried to pull this stunt off.

[Via Fark]

We're a bit frightened by the fact that high-ranking political officials are told to leave their BlackBerrys outside in an unguarded basket during high-level meetings (really, it's "common practice"), but nevertheless, one chap who tried to take advantage of the situation didn't quite make it out undiscovered. During a recent political meetup in New Orleans, a Mexican press attaché managed to slip a half dozen or so BlackBerrys into his pocket before darting to the airport with visions of black market markups in his head. Before he could exit the country, however, Secret Service had tracked him down after catching him via surveillance footage. As it stands, the responsible individual has been fired from his post, but there's been no word on whether the US will take any further actions. Reevaluating the whole "leaving them out in the open" practice may be a good start -- just sayin'.

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

Apple's no stranger to having its wares ganked (a lot), but this one really has us scratching our noggins some kind of fierce. Apparently a couple of meddlesome 20-somethings working at a Salem, New Hampshire Apple store managed to scoot away with somewhere between 330 and 700 iPhones. After somehow stuffing that many handsets into a panel van / pickup truck / privately owned C-130, they seemingly sweet talked a single high-roller into snatching up their entire stash for upwards of $138,000 -- which could be a bargain (or not) depending on the actual quantity included in the deal, internal capacity, etc. Minutiae aside, both individuals are currently residing under the strong arm of the law (surveillance cameras are hard to dodge), but curiously, nothing is mentioned about the buyer who didn't find spending over a hundred large with a couple of average joes (who just happened to have an inordinately large amount of iPhones for sale) the least bit odd.

[Thanks, Scott]

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

We're quite aware of the mayhem that went on during the buildup to the iPhone launch, and while it may cross someone's mind to purloin the oh-so-coveted device just hours before it went on sale to the public, we can't imagine a Fox News microphone being an acceptable substitute. 'Course, we've no way of really reading the vigilante's mind, but a brief iPhone interview was cut even shorter by a random mic stealer. Click on through for the zaniness as it happened, and kudos to the reporter on not just bailing out while she had the chance.

[Thanks, Matt]

We can't say that we'd recommend a CEO steal property from Google in order to prove a point, but the head honcho of Macmillan Publishers pushed his superego aside and did just that at a recent BookExpo America in NYC. It's no secret that a number of publishers have been up in arms about Google's approach to digitizing their works, but Richard Charkin went so far as to recruit a colleague and swipe a pair of laptops from a Google Books kiosk at the event. About an hour later, the booth attendants actually noticed the missing goods and presumably began to panic, and the haughty executive then had the nerve to return the machines to their rightful owners whilst dropping the "hope you enjoyed a taste of your own medicine" line. He justified the bizarre behavior by suggesting that "there wasn't a sign by the computers informing him not to steal them," apparently referencing Google's controversial tactics when scanning books. That'll show 'em, Mr. Charkin.

[Via TechDirt]

Stealing £3 million ($5.94 million) worth of mobile phones sure sounds like a risky way to may a buck, but if you're going to jack mobile handsets, you might as well swipe the ones that depreciate the least, eh? A crew of four men in Europe apparently agreed with that mantra, as they got up the nerve to run a Vertu van off the road with their Subaru and reportedly swiped a fair amount of handsets before darting off. There was no word on just how many phones were actually stolen, but we're sure the boys in blue found a fully stocked trunk after it located the crashed vehicle in Slough, Banks. Two of the four masked bandits were later captured and arrested for their part in the heist, but the other duo is probably trying to figure out how in the world they would unload hordes of these highly sought after mobiles without garnering suspicion in the first place.

[Via BGR]

While it may look easy (and astonishingly lucrative) to pull a case of high-stakes espionage, one South Korean and three US-based individuals are learning the hard way that crime doesn't pay. The Seoul Central Prosecutors Office is accusing an unnamed employee of Posdata Co., a developer of WiBro, "of sending email with proprietary information to three former employees who live in the US." Additionally, it was suggested that the trade secrets (which cost about $95 million to fully develop) were being offered up "for around $190 million" to an unnamed US company. All in all, four culprits were arrested in the ordeal, and while "some data" was transferred, the boys in blue caught on and stopped the gig before any major secrets were divulged. Should've tried the bag drop method, eh?

While we knew the Brits were looking Apple's way to help curb the nagging gadget theft problems still going on across the pond, it looks like Cupertino may have the ability to offer up a few solutions after a 2004 patent filing was reportedly awarded. According to AppleInsider, a US patent around "acceleration-based theft detection system" for movable devices was granted to Jobs & Co., and while we're still taking this with a grain of salt, it's not too surprising to hear of Apple coming out with a more secure method to stop theft than that cutesy combination lock built into new iPods. The filing insinuates that an accelerometer could be paired up with recognition software that could theoretically differentiate between normal bumps and ill intentions, and while specific hardware wasn't exactly covered, we can certainly assume that the more portable devices would get the anti-theft treatment first. All in all, the concept here seems fairly novel, but considering that using your Nike + iPod kit would probably cause all sorts of false alarms to go off using such a deterrent, we'll probably stick with the "toss gadget at larcenists' forehead" approach to keep our handhelds secure for now.

Given the vast amount of digital goodies that can be utilized as tools to gain an unfair advantage in certain testing situations, it's about time we see the officials fight fire with fire. With some schools banning iPods while others tie them into the learning process, Edexcel is looking to nip any potential theft problems in the bud by tagging packs of GCSE and A-level papers with RFID. Reportedly, the level of security surrounding these papers is already quite strict, and while actual cases of theft have remained relatively small so far, the exam board's not willing to risk it. The papers are apparently quite tempting targets for larceny, as past episodes have landed the confidential information on underground markets and even the internet, and the new tagging system will keep track of "how many papers are in the bundle, where they came from, and where they are going." Interestingly, it was noted that the packs wouldn't actually be tracked remotely, but instead would "speed up checks carried out by compliance officers." Currently, a "major trial" is already underway to presumably judge the effectiveness of the new anti-cheating system, so we'd think twice before snagging that pack of papers laying on the teacher's deserted desk.

[Via The Register]

Utilizing RFID technology to defuse the threat of theft isn't a fresh idea, but NXP Semiconductors and Kestrel Wireless are looking to make good on the premise by cranking out an anti-theft solution that just might appear on the next DVD you buy. By combining NXP's RFID technology with Kestral's RFA (radio frequency activation), manufacturers could install a minuscule chip on the optical media at the beginning of the supply chain which would render it unplayable, but having it scanned at a checkout counter would enable a series of authentication checks to occur and eventually unlock the media for playback. While the scenario may sound convoluted, it could allow manufacturers to skimp on bulky, restrictive packaging, and moreover, it could be applied to other items in the consumer electronics universe in order to deter thieves from trying to swipe expensive handheld gizmos. Of course, we can already envision the complaints that are sure to arise from legitimate buyers bringing home a coaster if the activation process happens to fail, but apparently, both companies are already hard at work persuading studios to write 'em a check and get these things into stores.

[Via Physorg]

It's one thing to have the cops roll up to the wrong retail location while you scurry away in the opposite direction, but to get away unscathed after cramming a mammoth projector down your pants is rather incredible. In yet another case of heists gone awry, a presumably desperate and unprepared Australian duo set out to snag what was likely the largest projector in the store, but rather than using a backpack (or eying one of those miniature models), the crooks decided that shorts were best. After wrestling with the device and even getting on both knees in an attempt to stuff it all in there, the primary suspect finally covered the excess up with his oversized tee and managed to waltz out with his accomplice as store employees probably dolled out sympathy thinking that that the poor lad had kyphosis. Regardless, we certainly hope the boys in blue manage to nab these fellas and throw in a count of abusing their rights to be idiotic while they're at it. Hit the read link for the comical video.

[Via Wired]

Those who wander into the realms of spying, phreaking, and dubious eavesdropping are likely familiar with Wim Van Eck, but for those new to remote screen-grabbing scene, you should probably take note. Back in the day, Mr. Eck "proved it was possible to tune into the radio emissions produced by electromagnetic coils in a CRT display and then reconstruct the image," effectively rending the images on a distant monitor without the user knowing. Now, however, a modern day guru in his own right has found that the methodology used in 1985 can still be potent today, albeit on laptops and flat panel LCDs. Markus Kuhn has since discovered that by tuning into the radio emissions produced by the cables running into a monitor, hackers can garner the pixels one at a time, and carefully stack them together to form a picture of someone else's screen. Reportedly, Markus was able to "see a PowerPoint presentation from a stand 25 meters away (pictured)," and he also noted that laptops with metal hinges were particularly good targets as they tended to broadcast the necessary signals quite well. Of course, we aren't encouraging the act of on-screen voyeurism without appropriate consent, but if you're interested in seeing what's behind the (faraway) LCD, be sure to hit the read link and push aside those morals for a moment. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via Slashdot]

It's one thing to lose track of all the peripherals you need to gank whilst stealing a gaming console, but to leave behind digital snapshots of yourself at a crime scene is on an entirely different level of dumb. In a case filled with Darwin award nominees, a team of self-incriminating thieves managed to break into private property and jack about "$5,000 worth of expensive alcohol, including $800 bottles of wine and high-dollar scotch," only to forget a digital camera filled with photos of the party in progress. Interestingly, game designer Richard Garriott (Ultima Online, anyone?) actually owns the property, and has stated that he'll probably install a swank video surveillance / security system to prevent such an annoyance from happening again. But if you've been wondering how to make a quick buck in order to snag a few new pieces of kit flowing out of CeBIT, Texas police are offering "up to $1,000 in reward money" for leading investigators to the less-than-intelligent criminals.

[Via Fark]

[Via Fark]