Small Town Residents Discover They Aren’t Immune From iPhone Porch Theft
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Crime, like stealing iPhones, is limited to the big cities in the US, right? Wrong. Spring Hill, TN, police have arrested two participants in what is allegedly a nationwide plot involving a crime syndicate using precise delivery information to steal expensive iPhones off of customers’ porches soon after their delivery, reports WKRN.
The Spring Hill Police Department (SHPD) says this crime syndicate does not simply follow delivery trucks around to steal packages after they’re placed at someone’s front door. Instead, SHPD Lieutenant Mike Foster said that these are targeted thefts. The criminals have inside information about the deliveries and know precisely where and when the products will be delivered.
SHPD Police began searching for a pair of (alleged) thieves on Monday morning when one of the porch pirates walked up to Rebecca Clark’s Spring Hill home and stole her husband’s brand new iPhone 16, which had been delivered by a FedEx driver just a few minutes earlier.
“I had my husband’s iPhone delivered to our house and 20 minutes later, it got snatched off the porch,” Clark said.
As you might imagine, Clark said she felt victimized.
“We knew it was coming and we live in a very safe neighborhood,” Clark added. “We figured I’d go home at lunch, grab the phone, but it got taken.”
A few hours later, police scored an arrest, following a stop of two men who spoke very little English. Police body cam footage showed one suspect sitting in the back of the squad car telling a detective that he was from New York.
Police say four brand new iPhones in the duo’s rental car (sans receipts, of course). One of the four new iPhones was the one the thieves had taken from Clark’s front porch.
“I had no idea how they knew what we were getting, what we were getting, when it was coming,” Clark said. “I had no idea.”
Clark said that her husband’s iPhone retails for close to $1,500.
Investigators say the two men are a cog in the machine of a crime syndicate that somehow obtains confidential shipping information, then provides it to field operatives who do the grunt work, like the two men arrested in Spring Hill.
“Somebody who has access to the manifest or the delivery list is giving out information,” Foster said.
Foster said the crime syndicate purchases airline tickets and rental cars for their “operatives,” allowing them to travel to specified locations, such as Spring Hill. They appear to know exactly when the iPhones will be delivered (Heck, I’ve had several iPhones delivered to my home over the years, and I have never known exactly when the iPhone would be delivered, even while continuously checking the courier’s website for updates).
Foster said that FedEx cooperated with Spring Hill PD, providing delivery schedules to allow detectives to arrest the thieves while they were still working the neighborhoods.
“We want to thank FedEx for their cooperation with us,” Foster added. “They were able to provide us with information that led to the ultimate arrest of these individuals and they were hitting multiple houses. We were able to disrupt their operation.”
