Police charge 17 people in Apple store theft scheme
Santa Rose CA Sept 28 2018
Seventeen people have been charged in a robbery scheme targeting Apple stores, according to the office of California’s Attorney General.
The group is accused of entering Apple’s retail stores wearing hoodies and grabbing gadgets on display.
Security footage shown during one of the robberies at the Santa Rosa Plaza Mall in Santa Rosa, California, shows three people with hoodies on rushing inside and quickly snatching devices such as iPhones and Macbooks and running out.
Eight adults have been arrested or booked, and arrest warrants have been issued against nine more suspects.
The thefts resulted in a loss of more than $1 million, the state’s attorney general’s office said in a statement released Thursday.
“Organized retail thefts cost California business owners millions and expose them to copycat criminals. Ultimately, consumers pay the cost of this merchandise hijacking,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
The robbery spree reached Apple stores across 19 counties in California, the state’s attorney general’s office said.
The series of Apple store thefts appear to date to May, San Francisco affiliate KGO-TV reports, when an Apple store in Carlsbad, California, was hit.
