Smash & Grab At SanTan Apple Store


See that pretty looking store right there? Two years ago, I spent about 6 hours in line at that location, waiting for my brand new iPhone 3G. It’s one of the bigger Apple stores in the area, and it’s in a new mall on the outskirts of town. It’s a bit far out for me, but for the tons of people out in Queen Creek and the surrounding area, it’s the closest Apple store that you can find.

It also has a giant glass storefront like many Apple stores, and a few enterprising thieves decided that was an invitation to make a bit of extra cash. AZ Central has the basics:

Gilbert police are looking for two unidentified young men who stole $9,400 worth of merchandise from the Apple Store in San Tan Village mall in 34 seconds in an early morning break-in Tuesday.

Police said the burglars used two large rocks to smash a large plate-glass door, then stole the merchandise and caused an estimated $30,000 in damage.

The pair were caught on tape by a distant video camera, police said.

An iPhone 4, two iPads, 2 MacBooks and an iPod Touch were among the items stolen, police said.

Now here’s the thing: These devices all have serial numbers and all of them connect to the internet. I’m sure the thieves are going to try to offload these things on Craigslist or eBay, but at some point, someone is going to try to get those things online and when they do, they’re screwed.

Maybe it’s a good idea to beef up security at locations like this, huh?


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

2 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. A few years ago at another store in AZ at the Biltmore there were several “smash and grabs” as well as a well orchestrated heist where the thieves popped open the back loading dock door and shimmied through the AC vents and out the front door setting off the alarm.

    Pretty petty but I’m sure it’s not that uncommon.

  2. chances are slim that they will go after them for this…insurance will cover the damage…

    we had 2 iPad’s and 1 MacBook Air stolen in the last couple months and no one can seem to do anything about it…the funny thing is…the MacBook’s have a thing called deep freeze on them…it takes the Macs back to the original configuration once a reboot has been done…so everytime they reboot the computer erases everything they have put on them…lol