Police said Monday that two cell phone stores in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, were robbed of 115 iPhone 5 handsets, iPads and cash for a total haul of around 10 million yen.
Police were quoted by TBS as saying that the thieves first smashed the front windows of a store at about 4 a.m. Monday and then forced open a cabinet in the storeroom in order to steal 79 iPhone 5 handsets and cash worth a combined 5.8 million yen.
Shortly after, a second robbery was staged using the same modus operandi at another store nearby. Police say that thieves made off with 36 iPhone 5 handsets and 16 iPads in the second break-in.
© Japan Today
19 Comments
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Saulo Akazawa
It is about time to catch these people... this got to be the 5th or 6th time. These are tech stores, don't they have security cams? If they do where is the footage? Any faces??
some14some
@Saulo: might be indirect sales and making profits through insurance company.
Ewan Huzarmy
Even if there were cameras, we'd only get a fuzzy image of a 170cm tall hood-wearing male in a white face-mask.
JoeBigs
How many times do these people have to strike before the cops catch them?
Elbuda Mexicano
Well, I am sure Apple must have insurance and that store too, but it is still bad news, do hope they catch these evil, evil Iphone/Ipad robbers, NOW!!!!!
LostinNagoya
These iPhones are going abroad, Police and Customs can find them during embarkation and arrivals.
Kimokekahuna Hawaii
They have tracking devices..soon they will be caught.
gogogo
Selling them in China.
tmarie
Seems we keep hearing about theft like this. Only going to get worse with the economy.
whiskeysour
They make them in China, many counterfeits are manufactured in china...
Best place & price is in Japan...
sighclops
Notice how they never steal any Android devices! LOL ZING!
bogva
Yeah, sighclops - seems Apple is not doing well - lots of stock while Androids are probably sold out ;-)
noriyosan73
A deliberate design and marketing defect so that the consumer has to buy a new one to replace the stolen one. Genius!
OKusa
Gimme your phones and money だっぺ!
Mirai Hayashi
Yahoo Auction
Hosaro
The stores have something far better than a good security system, insurance. If they sell the phones, good. If the phones are stolen from them just as good.
DudeDeuce
Best place & price is in Japan...
A few years ago here, my apartment and 8 other apartments in my building were burglarized. The only thing taken in the apartments were portable electronics. A year later, the suspects were caught. They were Chinese and had robbed hundreds of buildings in a span of a year. All items were shipped to China. I thought it was strange that they stole the cheap electronics but didn't touch my Nike collection worth 100 times that.
fupayme
I thought all iPhones in Japan are sold through the carriers such as Softbank and AU, and they are locked to the networks
Also can't these shops report the IMEI numbers to Softbank and AU and have the phones completely hard locked ?
Mirai Hayashi
They are, but you can always jailbreak/unlock them. Secondly, you can easily have your existing account or number switched to SB or AU, and bring in the iDevice to have the SIM put in