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Crooks Steal $1.5M In iPads From JFK
alphadogg writes "A pair of brazen crooks punched another hole in the lax JFK security when they stole a trove of new Apple iPad minis — worth $1.5 million — from the same cargo building that was the site of the 1978 Lufthansa heist featured in GoodFellas, according to the New York Post. The crooks struck shortly before midnight on Monday and used one of the airport's own forklifts to load two pallets of the tablet computers into a truck, according to law-enforcement sources. It's been a crazy year for iPad/iPhone thefts in New York City and elsewhere."
Does Apple have a way to not allow these to be used if turned on, or can they track them through some kind of CPU ID code?
Sent from my brand new iPad.
...The TSA?
http://us.gizmodo.com/5947330/yep-the-tsa-is-definitely-stealing-ipads
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/convicted-tsa-officer-reveals-secrets-thefts-airports/story?id=17339513#.UKXz-hLJCPc
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57523230/beware-your-gadgets-at-risk-of-theft-from-tsa/
http://www.businessinsider.com/tsa-agents-steal-from-passengers-2012-10
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/10/06/tsa-agent-accused-of-stealing-100-from-passengers-wallet/
Yeah, I know some of you are wondering WTF all the links, and "does he have a grudge" and so on. Well, suffice it to say my encounter with the scoundrels was double plus ungood.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of hipster voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
That's like 9 ipads.
Tommy DeVito: [it becomes quiet] Funny how? What's funny about it? Anthony Stabile: Tommy no, You got it all wrong. Tommy DeVito: Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. What did ya say? Funny how? Henry Hill: Jus... Tommy DeVito: What? Henry Hill: Just... ya know... you're funny. Tommy DeVito: You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little fucked up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny? Henry Hill: Just... you know, how you tell the story, what? Tommy DeVito: No, no, I don't know, you said it. How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the fuck am I funny, what the fuck is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what's funny! Henry Hill: [long pause] Get the fuck out of here, Tommy! Tommy DeVito: [everyone laughs] Ya motherfucker! I almost had him, I almost had him. Ya stuttering prick ya. Frankie, was he shaking? I wonder about you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning.
I thought it was the TSA itself - but the iPad Mini is rather new, for the TSA to have stolen that many of them since launch, at least at a single airport.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
They steal 1.5 mil worth of hardware, top of the shelf stuff? How are they going to sell it? In a year, hell, half a year, their value will go down by half. Soon after, another version will appear.
Of all the stuff that passes through an airport, THAT's what they stole? The police have it easy, people who worked in that area the past three days and the past 5 years, then reduce that batch by seeing who the idiots are.
Of course, if it's the TSA who probably have access everywhere, it will blow into an enormous scandal.
What is a dead president doing with $1.5M worth of iPads in the first place?
... not a single fuck was given that day.
Otherwise I'm sure that ~4559 iPad boxes (@ USD 329 per unit) would certainly not fit in any standard pair of pallets that can be forklifted.
My other signature is a car
the thieves didn't steal a container of biological warfare agents instead... it would have been a far less hazardous thing to try and fence.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
I believe it's a snarky comment on airport security.
Yes, this eye-opening revelation of yours truly never gets old no matter how many times different people bring it up.
Now where the hell did this happen ? LAX or JFK ? Another great move by the hipster gangsters to conceal their identity.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
So, in other words, $1.5M in overpriced electronics.
Assuming that they end up in a country over which a US court has jurisdiction and don't just, for example, get exported to some out-of-the-way country that would kill for the latest tech and aren't too bothered about whether Apple "supports" their hardware or not.
Wouldn't be surprised if those devices weren't already out in the wild somewhere, in some other country, and though you can block them from going on iTunes, etc. you can't stop them being hacked / used for other things. Plus, the criminals would actually make quite a lot of money just selling them as stolen goods - more than enough to cover their risk - even if they are instantly disabled. No doubt there are some Apple Store hacks wandering around the net already and that store would presumably operate by software sending some unique identifier to Apple? Hack the software, change the identifier, problem solved.
Believe it or not, Apple doesn't run the world, and even stolen goods have a market for them. Your car analogy still holds, though - but do you think some Middle Eastern country's politicians would care that the luxury sports cars they obtained were originally stolen from elsewhere and couldn't be registered in the US? That exact same thing already happens with cars, and a truck full of iPads is even easier to move out of the country without detection.
Also, if you have no legitimate means of support, enough to cover your risk isn't very much... This is why there are so many thieves, there are so many poor.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I doubt that the people who pulled off the heist stole the machines with the intent to keep them for personal use.
I just saw Goodfellas for the first time two nights ago. As I was reading the first sentence in the headline I was thinking to myself 'Hey just like in Goodfellas' . I have nothing else to add to the discussion (other than you'd think they'd have better security 40 years later), I just thought it was a really weird coincidence.
Came for 'and nothing of value was lost'. ... was disappointed.
Too bad they hadn't considered that nobody wants to buy them. I hope they enjoy all their ipad minis, lol.
So instead of an icepick in the back of the neck will these guys get stabbed with a stylus?
Yes, this eye-opening revelation of yours truly never gets old no matter how many times different people bring it up.
Are iFellows also geeks or iNerds.
Old news..
they will be flagged, the GPS location logged and someone (law enforcement or maybe Apple security) will show up at the location.
GEheimnis STaats Apple POlizei
if only these things had some sort of built in tracking device
Assuming that they end up in a country over which a US court has jurisdiction and don't just, for example, get exported to some out-of-the-way country that would kill for the latest tech and aren't too bothered about whether Apple "supports" their hardware or not.
Thank you for your support, I shall wear it always. David Frost
cant wait to buy one dirt cheap.......
Mere possession of stolen property will not land you in any trouble at all whenever you have proof that you acquired it from somebody else, and did not steal it yourself. A receipt of sale is generally going to be adequate in this case.
That will not entitle you to keep the stolen property, however. A buyer, regardless of innocence, must surrender stolen property to the authorities at their own expense. The only thing a buyer gets out of it is the ability to rightfully sue the party they purchased it from for their losses.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Two words:
Beowulf Cluster.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
That would take some time to get rid of that many iPad mini's via a back of a van. Likely they have a buyer(s) possibly overseas that's willing to take them as we found on Reddit AMA there are a few countries where Apple cannot sell except through certain middleman channels. I just don't see two guys selling a current version at a gas station/eBay and being able to move all of those without help (in sales).
Although I do know a bunch of CEO's who would love to save handing out bonuses this year and will find a cheap way to compensate...
I wanna know, how is this fuckin' funny?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Wait a minute...
We gotta strip search grandmas and children before they get on a plane, but someone can roll a truck into the airport containing *anything* and just roll out again with NO SECURITY?
Then there's the incident with the Jet-skier who ran out of gas and washed ashore at JFK, hopped over a fence and then was able to walk through the airport and wasn't detained until *he* alerted security???
Seriously, next time the terrorists attack, it won't be vai the normal vector of waiting online to go through the naked scanners. The TSA is a complete waste of time, money, liberties, dignity, and human rights.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
So, I've just figured out the business model for Quibids dot com. No wonder they can advertise on TV that they are selling Macbooks for $67, and iPads for $19 -- and I sat there thinking, "how the hell do they make money doing that?" ... Well, now I know.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
You car analogy holds up, ONLY if these devices continue to be used within USA borders. Just visit Albania for an example. Any luxury car you see there is stolen.
These iPads are likely to be resold within China, where property laws are as lax as intellectual property laws.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
In order to make a cluster of more than 100 machines running iOS, you need an enterprise developer license, which requires a D-U-N-S number.
Wow who cares if I phones / iPad's get stolen. If you steel the under dog technology your not exactly doing very good. If you want to prove a point steel android phones and tablets.
The only thing a buyer gets out of it is the ability to rightfully sue the party they purchased it from for their losses.
Is that a straightforward action in small claims court?
YOU SONOFABITCH!
Did they have AppleCare coverage on them?
They don't have sub-space in Toronto. That's where I'd look first.
I drank what? -- Socrates
+1
actually a crate of mirrors.
Please: take them all!
8-PP
All you need [for a DUNS number] is a valid SSN/address pair.
Which law enforcement can use to track down the crooks that built an iPad cluster.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated decades before the iPad was created. I sense a hoax!
They now have a suspect in custody.
Apparently this Apple thief 'genius' (see what I did there..?) was an employee at JFK and, "asked co-workers for details about the Apple shipment and about where he might get his hands on a forklift."
More here:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57551500-37/man-arrested-for-ipad-mini-theft-reportedly-had-maxi-mouth/