Apple Crime Log: Drone Trackers, Highway Heists, and a $2,600 UPS Bust
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It’s time once again to take a deep dive into police records and news reports to uncover Apple-related crimes. In this edition of the Apple Crime Log: a UPS employee decides to acquire an Apple Watch without visiting the Apple Store, a Verizon store gets scammed out of iPhones, and stolen devices travel down the I-5 from San Francisco to L.A.
UPS Employee Accused of Stealing Apple Watch
Gary Glen Collins, a 34-year-old UPS package handler, has been arrested on a felony grand theft charge, according to a Riviera Beach Police probable cause affidavit.
CBS 12 reports that Collins, a UPS package handler in Florida allegedly attempted to steal nearly $2,600 worth of electronics, including phones and an Apple Watch Series 11, from the UPS facility he worked at.
Collins was caught after supervisors received a tip that he was hiding stolen items under a yellow tote. When he was searched, supervisors found the packages there. The man drew suspicion because he typically only handled heavier packages and not smaller ones, the report said.
iPhone-related Identity Theft at a Verizon Store
A New York man was arrested in California for what police say is his part in a mobile identity fraud operation.
KRON reports the man entered a Verizon Store in San Mateo, accessed a customer’s Verizon account and used the account to “place an unauthorized order for two Apple iPhones.”
The man fled the store in a U-Haul van. He was apprehended by the San Mateo Police Department after they used a drone to track him down.
Cops say a search of the van discovered “numerous fictitious identification cards, blank identification cards, an ID card printer, bank cards not belonging to the suspect, and numerous boxes of unopened iPhones.”
Jose Simemorales, 30, was charged with identity theft, forgery, and possessing a document-making device with the intent to defraud.
Stolen iPhones Make the Journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles
Multiple music fans attending the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco in early August reported having their iPhones stolen by pickpockets, reports The San Francisco Standard.
At least three festivalgoers tracked their stolen iPhones on Apple’s Find My app, watching as the devices traveled south down Interstate 5 before arriving in Los Angeles.
Several other Outside Lands attendees are commenting on social media that they had stolen phones that have turned up in L.A.
“I didn’t realize how complex these pickpocketing rings could go,” said Annie, 29, who lives in San Francisco. She had watched as her iPhone 17 first showed up near Sunset Boulevard and Kirkham Street, then surfaced in Daly City, then South San Francisco, before it turned up in L.A.’s Koreatown.
One of the victims said that the Los Angeles Police Department reported receiving as many as 20 such reports in a single day. But according to the report, jurisdictional complications kept police investigations from moving forward.
Bail Revoked for Driver in Hingham Apple Store Crash Case
The man charged in the November 2022 crash at the Hingham, Mass. Apple Store has had his bail revoked.
NBC Boston reports Plymouth County prosecutors revoked Bradley Rein’s bail in mid-August after saying he violated probation. The violation reportedly concerned the alcohol-monitoring bracelet he was required to wear.
Rein, who was 52 when the incident occurred, drove his 4Runner through the front glass of the Apple Store in Hingham, Massachusetts, in November 2022.
The SUV crashed through the glass, only stopping when it hit the Apple Store’s rear wall, killing one person and injuring numerous others. While Rein claims it was an accident, he was charged with several crimes, including second-degree murder and motor vehicle homicide by reckless operation.
Rein has pleaded not guilty, and the case is still pending after nearly four years.
