Thief Dressed As Apple Genius Outsmarts Employees, Walks Out NY Store With 19 iPhones

Police in New York said two men were able to steal 19 iPhone devices from Apple's SoHo store last week. Nobody was held up at gunpoint and there was no ruckus of any kind—the ingenious thieves thwarted the swarm of Apple geniuses by dressing "similarly" to one of them so as not to draw undue attention to themselves.

It's not known exactly what attire they had on, but Apple employees typically dress up in blue t-shirts sporting a while Apple logo on the front a few inches below the neckline. That wouldn't be tough to replicate. Even without the logo, someone simply wearing the same or similar color blue shirt is likely to blend in, especially if it happens to be a busy day.

Apple Geniuses

This particular theft occurred on June 1 at around 5:30 PM. It was at that time the brazen imposters marched themselves into the electronics repair room. One of the thieves grabbed 19 iPhone handsets from a drawer worth over $16,000 and handed them to his cohort, who hid them under this shirt. They then just walked out of the store without being accosted.

Apple has fell prey to this ruse before. Back in February, three thieves working together stole eight iPhones worth over $5,300 from Apple's retail location on Broadway at West 67th Street, the New York Post reports. One of the crooks distracted the employees, another acted as a lookout, while the third lifted the iPhones.

It also happened a week ago when three thieves used the same strategy to steal 59 iPhones worth around $44,000