While the people around the globe were, busy in the emerging lines for the iPhone 5, the carriers and Apple Retail Stores were busy in setting up the iPhone 5 on display, more than 400 units of the iPhone 5 were stolen from different locations around the globe. The robbery occurred at those carrier Retail Stores where the security was left in dark and no one was present to look after them. The Apple Retail Stores on the other hand had the security tightened because the staff was hooking the iPhone 5 on display and were putting up display banners for todays launch worldwide.
A total of 191units were stolen from three different shops owned by carrier’s partner KDDI and Softbank in the Osaka area in Japan. The major carrier partner to get affected in this robbery is Softbank Japan; whose store had iPhone 5 stock wipe cleaned before the official launch. The police are investigating the robbery and they have not yet confirmed about the culprits of the case, reports WSJ.
[A] Softbank Corp store in the western district of Osaka city was wiped clean of its iPhone 5 stock. All 116 devices were stolen, including one store display. The police said they were taken from the locked backroom within a four minute span from 4:24 a.m. as shown on security camera footage. The video recording also showed there were three culprits, all likely to be male. The police said it is uncertain whether the robbery is related to the incident in Ibaraki, located about 20 minutes away by car.
According to the above report, the robbery was completed in the time span of four minutes in total as shown in the camera footage. The Softbank Store had total of 116 units iPhone 5 stolen in just four minutes of time span. Remaining seventy-five units were stolen from different locations.
The iPhone 5 didn’t become the victim in Japan only. The United Kingdom reportedly faced the same robbery issue at its O2 Shop. About 252 units of iPhone 5 were stolen from the O2 shop in London. The Independent reports the theft was an inside job.
Officers want to speak to Usman Sethi, 23, of Audley Gardens, Ilford, east London, who works as an assistant at the store.
The phones were taken at 1.30am, with a quantity of cash which was also stolen from the shop’s safe. […]
Police also want to speak to Mr Sethi, a Pakistani national, in connection with the theft of jewellery belonging to a family member from his home address in Audley Gardens.
The culprit behind the iPhone 5 252 Units stolen is said to be MR. Usman Sethi, the person who used to work as an assistant at the store.
The sole iPhone 5 unit of 16GB capacity is on sale for £529, if we calculate the total amount expecting the 16GB capacity of iPhone 5, we get £133,308. If we calculate for the 32GB iPhone 5, we would get around £150,948. This means the person who stole iPhone 5 units would become a millionaire even if he sells the iPhone 5 on Craig list.