Apple’s iPhone devices are particularly popular; so popular, in fact, that thieves have developed a special term – “Apple picking” – to describe stealing someone’s iPhone or iPad, The New York Times’ Michael Wilson reported.
“Apples are picked on crowded subways, in quiet parks, on busy street corners, in loud bars,” Wilson wrote. “Apples are picked while people are talking on the phone, the picker dashing past and doing the deed in midstride.”
A recent incident in Brooklyn demonstrated the extreme popularity of these devices, according to Wilson. In the same afternoon, an iPhone was stolen and then stolen again from the original thief.
The original device owner was a 16-year-old girl, who happened to be walking through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park when a boy of about the same age snatched her iPhone 4S. She walked back the way she had came and flagged down a police car, which drove her around the park to see if she could spot the boy who had stolen her device. However, she did not have any luck in spotting the thief.
In the meantime, the thief walked down Bedford Avenue, deciding to show the phone to a man who expressed interest in buying it. However, rather than purchase the device, the seemingly interested buyer simply snatched the phone from the first thief and ran off with it.
In most cases, it might have been logical for the thief to count his losses, but this particular boy decided the best course of action would be to hail down a police car himself and report the crime, portraying himself as a victim to the officers. The police were able to find the man nearby and arrested him promptly, bringing both the first and the second thief to the 70th Precinct station house.
Several blocks away, the girl was still driving around with officers looking for the boy who had stolen her iPhone when an officer suggested calling it. The 78th Precinct’s Officer Denisse Pacheco pretended to be the victim on the phone, eventually discovering that the person who answered was a fellow officer from the 70th Precinct. The girl was then taken to the station to identify the young man as the thief, and officers made two arrests that day.
While theft is certainly a concern, many Apple users also damage their devices on the street due to these tussles. If your device suffers a fall, iResQ’s iPhone repair services are a great solution for getting your phone back to working order and putting the whole experience behind you.