Always at the forefront of cultural trends, it looks like Capitol Hill thieves are getting a jump on their brethren in the rest of the city by boosting iPhones directly from the shelf. In an incident last Friday morning at the AT&T Store on E. Pike near the Harvard QFC, a man ran out of the store with two of the Apple smart phones. A search of the area for the man came up empty. The suspect was described as a black male in his 20s, wearing a grey hoodie and wearing shorts.
Wednesday, Central District News reported another shoplifting incident at the 815 E. Pike store. No word if the target was, again, an Apple product.
The E Pike line for the iPhone 3G (Photo: SeattleBrad)
If this activity continues, we have a new shoplifting hot spot to monitor joining a neck and neck race between the Harvard QFC around the corner, the QFC on Broadway and the Safeway at 15th Ave and John as the Hill’s top destinations for the sticky finger crowd.
iJacking – How to protect yourself from mobile phone theft – KOMO News Seattle from Ken Westin on Vimeo.
Don’t use your iPhone as you walk down the street totally zoned out.
The End
What are the very expensive phones doing just sitting out in the open? wouldn’t you keep any non-display phones in back somewhere, only bringing them out for purchase?
They used to keep them locked up in the back for this reason and have a security guard on duty at the store.
I understand that iPhones are hot items for thieves but this seems to be from June 10th of 2010. Yet somehow I landed here on 1/18/2012 and Eric was here just yesterday.
It may seem as though I’m from the future here in 2012 but iThefts are still problematic on Cap Hill if not more so than 1.5 years ago.