Thief dresses like Apple store employee, makes off with 19 iPhones
A man dressed like an Apple store employee waltzed into the company's New York City SoHo location and used the disguise to make off with 19 iPhones, worth over $16,000.
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The suspect was wearing a blue shirt that looked similar enough to actual employees that he blended in on June 1, according to DNA Info. He took the phones right out of a drawer in the store's repair room before passing them to an accomplice who reportedly hid the phones under his shirt.
As Gizmodo points out, thieves used a similar method earlier this year when hitting another NYC Apple store — twice — to steal several dozen iPhones. (There's no indication the two are connected as of yet.)
That location, on the Upper West Side, was known as a training location for workers so new faces wouldn't raise questions.
Gizmodo digs in to Apple's 2015 decision to change from a rotating, seasonal uniform, to a standard year-round uniform — the "Back to Blue" campaign" — as a reason why it might be so easy for these thieves to make off with all the merchandise.
After all, as The Next Web notes, it's pretty easy to just buy one of the shirts online. And YouTube has a few "prank" videos where the pranksters impersonate Apple store employees with ease.
Mashable has reached out to Apple about the thefts.
