Thieves are stealing iPhones by dressing up like Apple employees.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that three individuals stole a total of 67 iPhones from a New York City Apple store in the Upper West Side. Last week, 19 more iPhones were stolen from another SoHo story in NYC. How are these thieves breaking into an Apple store and stealing so many iPhones? By dressing up like Apple store employees.
It’s clear that these thieves know their way around an Apple store. In all of the robberies, the suspects “dressed similarly” to Apple employees. They then walked directly to the drawers were the brand new unlocked iPhones are stored. And they would target training locations such as the Upper West Side location because they wouldn’t stick out amongst a group of other unfamiliar faces.
According to Gizmodo, a new uniform for Apple employees introduced by Apple’s senior VP of retail may be the reason why criminals are able to walk away with dozens of iPhones. In 2015, Angela Ahrendts announced her vision for uniforms called “Back to Blue… But All New” which introduced several different styles of shirts for employees to wear.
Apple uniforms used to change seasonally and employees were expected to wear the same t-shirts for weeks or months at a time. However, a switch to “permanent” uniforms is meant to make Apple stores feel more high-end like a luxury department store. But that leaves the store open to getting robbed by a group of fake Apple employees pretending to be salesman.
Police have only connected the two robberies and its’ not clear if these thieves were wearing the official shirts or close approximations. Either way, Apple may want to change the uniform police or hire additional security guards.
But at the end of the day, it doesn’t look that hard to do. YouTuber Tyler Fishcher pretended to be an Apple employee by wearing an Apple sweater and acting real confident.
This is not the first time someone did this. The improv group, Improv Everywhere had 80 people enter a Manhattan Best Buy wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants, which looked like an action scene in an Ocean’s 11 movie.
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