Police sought a man in an iPhone theft at a casino, and a man is accused of stealing iPads from a company that had just fired him,, all in this week's Apple Crime Blotter.
The latest in an occasional AppleInsider series on the world of Apple-related crime.
A man waiting in line for nearly 40 hours at a West Hollywood Best Buy for a new Pokemon card release had his iPhone 17 Plus stolen, although he later tracked it and got it back.
According to WeHo Online, the man got in line on the afternoon of Monday the 14th for the release of Pokemon's 30th anniversary trading cards, and was still in line on the 16th. At 7 a.m., it was reported to police that the iPhone had been stolen.
The man gave police permission to track the device, and police determined that the thief had dropped it. The man got his iPhone back and declined to press charges.
Carson City Sheriff's Office in Nevada is looking for a man who they say stole an iPhone from a customer at the Nugget Casino.
2 News reports the theft took place August 17, and the alleged thief was "last seen wearing a purple sweatshirt, gray sweatpants, purple-and-black Nike shoes and a white headband."
A 43-year-old man from Hialeah, Fla., has been arrested for stealing 30 iPads, valued at $12,000, from a business that had fired him earlier that day.
According to NBC Miami, police say the theft happened on September 4, when an employee recognized the man as he was entering the warehouse. Even though the man was wearing a mask, the owner of the business was also able to recognize him on surveillance video.
The report said the man had been fired for not showing up for work the previous two days. It was later discovered he had pawned some of the iPads shortly after the theft.
An elderly Connecticut woman had nearly $28,000 stolen in an identity theft scam, although an iPhone left in a Porsche led to the scammer's arrest.
CT Post explains a scammer told the 80-year-old woman her Social Security number had been compromised, using a fake "Apple Security" alert. The man on the phone told her that she would need to pay $27,975, in cash left in a shoebox, to get a new Social Security number.
A witness provided a license plate number of a Porsche used in the scam. An iPhone left in the car was traced back to the man who was later arrested.
Police in Englewood, N.J., arrested a man after they followed the signal from a pair of AirPods to track a stolen car.
According to News 12, police eventually found the man carrying the AirPods, after which he "made several disparaging comments and threatened one of the officers."
He was hit with several charges, including burglary, theft, receiving stolen property, terroristic threats, resisting arrest and possession of burglary tools.
A 42-year-old man walked into a Walmart store in Sarasota, Fla., put on a Walmart vest in order to impersonate a store employee, in an attempt to steal from the store.
That didn't work, as he got out only with the vest. However, he later used that vest in a different Walmart to steal three Apple Watches, police said.
WWSB reports police caught up with him entering his vehicle, which they searched, turning up the watches and a gun. He was charged with grand theft, a felon in possession of a firearm, and burglary of an occupied structure.
A 19-year-old North Carolina man has been charged with multiple felonies after he allegedly broke into the victim's vehicle and took an iPad Pro, AirPods, a wallet, a purse, and medication.
According to Fox Carolina, police pinged the AirPods to the man's residence. After a verbal altercation between the man and the victim, the sheriff's office arrived, recovered the items, and arrested the man.
Police said evidence from the man's phone "supports the allegations of theft." He was hit with charges of felony breaking and entering a motor vehicle, felony larceny, and felony possession of stolen goods/property.
Police in Ohio arrested a man on charges that he used an AirTag to stalk a woman.
TiffinOhio.net writes the woman told police that the man had been following her and placed the device on her car, in addition to making threats.
The man was charged with menacing by stalking, a first-degree misdemeanor.
A man in Georgia, the country, was arrested for a rather crude form of iPhone counterfeiting. Police say he made a plastic object meant to resemble an iPhone and attempted to pawn it at a Tbilisi pawn shop.
According to Georgia Today, police determined that the man was part of a conspiracy that had pawned "six imitation mobile phone devices at different pawnshops, causing significant financial damage to the companies."
He was charged with repeated fraud, attempted fraud, and the production and use of forged documents, the Interior Ministry told the outlet.
