Security guards at Apple Store in Back Bay hit with pepper spray by teen shoplifting suspect
Boston MA Jan 16 2020
Shoplifters twice hit the Apple Store in the Back Bay on Monday and during the second incident one of the suspect shoplifters, a teenaged girl, sprayed three loss prevention officers with pepper spray, sending one of them to the hospital, Boston police said.
The two shoplifting incidents at the Apple store were among several reported by merchants in the Back Bay and South End between 2:33 p.m. and 6:08 p.m. Monday, according to Boston police reports. Investigations are ongoing and police are not certain the shoplifting incidents are connected.
Around 2:33 p.m., police responded to the Apple store where a loss prevention officer reported the suspect was a man between 16 and 20 years old who had committed previous shoplifting incidents, and usually appeared at the store accompanied by young women who may be teenagers.
The shoplifter went up to the second floor where he grabbed a black iPhone XR off a display case and ran out the door, heading towards the Prudential Center, according to police. The phones can cost around $649 each, according to Apple’s website.
Around 6:08 p.m., three shoplifters showed up at the store – a man and two women who may be teenagers – and were confronted by security personnel as they allegedly tried to run from the store, police said. Two of the suspects fled from the security personnel.
A third person, a woman or a teenage girl, was brought back into the store where she pulled out pepper spray and fired it into the faces of the three Apple security personnel, one of whom was later taken to a hospital for treatment, police said. The suspect escaped.
Between the two robberies at the Apple Store, two men walked into the Van’s on Newbury Street with shopping bags around 4:35 p.m. Both grabbed a stack of T-shirts, stuffed them in the shopping bags and then fled the store. And teenagers went into a coffee shop on Washington Street in the South End where a teenager grabbed granola bars and ran off.
Police on Monday also responded to the Victoria’s Secret store where employees reported four women entered the store, stole a number of bottles of perfume. At least one of them went to the Victoria’s Secret store in Cambridge where they also shoplifted some merchandise, according to police.
No arrests have been made, police said.
