Modern Day ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’ Burglars Steal $500,000 in Apple Gear from Apple Store

A modern-day “Hole-in-the-Wall” gang of burglars recently cut through the wall of an adjoining espresso machine retail store to steal an estimated $500,000 in Apple devices from the Apple Store in the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, Washington.

The burglars stole hundreds of iPhones, Apple Watches, and iPads, sometime after the store’s 7:00 p.m. local time closing on Sunday night, April 2. As the Apple store was closed at the time of the burglary. Apple employees did not discover the heist until opening the store on Monday morning.

The perps entered the store via a hole they cut through a restroom wall in the Seattle Coffee Gear espresso machine retail store. A Seattle Coffee Gear executive said he had been in the mall for half a decade and hadn’t seen anything like this during that time.

“Our front door was locked. They pried our front door open,” Seattle Coffee Gear Regional Manager Eric Marks told Komo News.

“[It was a] 24 by 18 hole cut in the wall into what appears to be the back room of the Apple store,” he continued. “I’m surprised we were the conduit for them to get to the Apple store, I had no clue we were so close or adjacent to them.”

Marks continued, saying he wasn’t aware of the layout of the wall, and that whoever planned the break-in “really had to think it out and have access to the mall layout.”

CEO of Seattle Coffee Gear, Mike Atkinson tweeted about the theft on Tuesday, while also sharing a photo of the restroom wall hole, as well as a story of CPR rescue not connected to the burglary.

Lynnwood Police Department Communications Manager Maren McKay said the thieves are believed to have stolen an “entire wall” of 436 iPhones, as well as an unknown number of iPad tablets and Apple Watches. The thieve total haul was approximately $500,000 worth of Apple equipment.

Surveillance video shows what appears to be a well-planned and well-organized operation, as the burglars were wearing masks and apparently there were no fingerprints left behind.

Seattle Coffee Gear says it has changed the store’s locks. It is estimated that the bad guys cost the coffee machine company an estimated $1,800 in damages.

While having iPhones and other items stolen from Apple retail stores has occurred multiple times in the past, the thefts have usually taken place during store hours.

A group of at least three masked men entered the Summit Apple Store in Birmingham, Alabama on January 13, broke the locks on display cases, and stole iPhones. The suspects piled into an SUV and escaped.

In January, Millburn, N.J. Police arrested a man for allegedly stealing more than $6,000 of merchandise from the Short Hills Mall Apple Retail Store. The 41-year-old Brooklyn resident was caught by police in the mall’s parking lot.

In September 2018, California authorities issued arrest warrants for 17 people that were allegedly members of an Apple Store theft ring across the state. The hoodie-clad bad actors would enter Apple Stores in large groups – grabbing iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks that were on display – and exiting the stores ”in a matter of seconds.”

This information first appeared on Mactrast.com