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."

Comments

Serialized?

[drkim]

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?

Re:Serialized?

[Mr2cents]

But maybe the police does care to catch the criminals involved...

Re:Serialized?

[jhoegl]

The insurance companies care as well.

First post!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sent from my brand new iPad.

Re:First post!

[lord_rob the only on]

This shows that you should really have bought a Android powered tablet ;-)

And The Culprit Is,

[Penurious Penguin]

...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.

Re:And The Culprit Is,

[Mashiki]

That was my first thought, that it was an inside job or serious help and an inside job. And to be honest you're not off on believing it either, there's an old bit in criminology where 70-80% of your theft comes from internal sources. Of that 70-80%, 40-50% of those people will steal regardless of whether or not they're going to get caught.

Seriously the entire organization needs to be launched into the sun, it's the only way to be sure.

Re:And The Culprit Is,

[Penurious Penguin]

Seriously the entire organization needs to be launched into the sun, it's the only way to be sure.

Ha! And you know they'd go straight for the warmest parts!

Re:And The Culprit Is,

[LoRdTAW]

TSA has nothing to do with freight, they are responsible for the safety of the travelling public. US customs handles freight shipments into and out of the country. But I doubt it was them. Most of the freight comes into warehouses located on the outskirts of the airport off the Nassau expressway at the end of Rockaway blvd. I lived 5 minuted from JFK and know numerous people who worked in and around JFK, luggage handlers, truck drivers, warehouse workers, customs agent, freight company managers etc.

The best insight into freight theft came from a retired truck driver I know. Basically nearly all of the theft is committed by employees, managers and owners of the cargo companies. There are hijackings and sometimes a trailer is stolen but those are few and far between. The stories he told me (he was part of the theft problem, he wasn't ashamed about it) were often simple and mundane.

Stealing HP computers bound for Israel? Open the boxes, take computers out, replace with rocks and deliver to airport. Unhappy Jewish person gets a box of rocks.

How to steal 10 Playstation 2's (on launch day no less) bound for Best Buy's distribution center? Freight company stupidly hands him security seal to put on trailer door, he puts on seal but doesn't let it lock, freight employee is fooled and signs off. Stop truck remove a bunch of PS2's put seal back on trailer and actually let it lock. Best Buy stumped that PS2's were stolen en-route when seal was locked and signed off. They search trailer for holes or tampering but none found. Gets away with it and hocks PS2's for $800 each.

Steal designer cloths? Many college kids get part time jobs at clothing stores, usually lazy or ignorant of shipments. He steals 2 boxes from a shipment of 20 boxes. Clueless college kid receives 18 boxes, doesn't count them and signs for 20 boxes.

Designer hand bag shipment stored at warehouse? Company owner makes entire skid disappear from warehouse over night. Blames employees for theft.

The list could go on but those were the stories I remember. And it wasn't only him but many others who stole: warehouse workers, truck drivers, managers, bosses/owners. You name it, they stole it. So no doubt it was an inside job.

What is it Obi Wan?

[Provocateur]

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.

My God..

[mumblestheclown]

That's like 9 ipads.

Re:My God..

[Anonymous Coward]

The **AA said it was just one, but it had some movies and music in it.

At first I thought...

[blind biker]

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.

More human stupidity?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Wait... what?!?

[cbope]

What is a dead president doing with $1.5M worth of iPads in the first place?

What a pity

[silentcoder]

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.

Re:Maybe 1.5M of Namibian Dollars

[unkiereamus]

Well, I had to take some WAGs, but based on this image: http://assets.ilounge.com/images/uploads/ipadminifr2.jpg and the stated technical dimensions of the ipad mini of 7.8 x 5.3 x .28 inches, I'm guesstimating a packaging dimension of 8 x 5.5 x 1.25 inches. Assuming an ISO 40 x 48 inch pallet, and a stack height of 48 inches (and without running the math for an optimal stacking solution), I make it as each layer being 5 (40/8) x 8 (48/5.5) = 40 units, with 38 layers, for a total of 1520 units per pallet.

Assuming that every one of them was the base model at $329, that would be just over a million dollars (1,000,160) for the two pallets, for the top of the line at $659, that's just over two million dollars (2,003,360).

It's probably a mix of models, and obviously my WAGs are going to be off some, but really, 1.5 million for 2 pallets isn't a wholly unreasonable number.

Re:Maybe 1.5M of Namibian Dollars

[unkiereamus]

I'm sorry, I forgot to address the weight issue. Per the Apple store, the weight ranges from 308-312g depending on model, and per their environmental report (http://images.apple.com/environment/reports/docs/iPadmini_PER_oct2012.pdf), the packaging weighs in at 333g, I couldn't easily find any numbers for the charger and cord etc, but I'm just going to go hog wild and round the whole thing up from 645g to 750g to cover them. So 1520*750 = 1,140,000g or 1,140kg or 2,513 lbs.

Toyota's bottom of the line forklift (http://www.toyotaforklift.com/product/InternalCombustionCushionTireLiftTrucks/8seriesic.aspx) has a rated capacity of 3,000 lbs.)