Looting Apple Stores is pointless, as these people quickly found out

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

What a waste.

Apple Walnut Street store
(Image credit: Apple)

People have been stealing things from Apple Stores for as long as Apple Stores have been a thing, but something a ton of people seemingly aren't aware of is that it's entirely pointless. They can't possibly know, because they keep on doing it.

The latest example came after people looted the Apple Walnut Street store in Philadelphia, taking iPhone 15 handsets and more as they went. The problem is, and as some soon found out, stealing an iPhone and other products from Apple does little more than put a warrant on your head.

And the iPhone won't even work anyway.

Don't steal, folks

You've probably already seen the news stories of looters breaking into stores yesterday, including an Apple Store. There were even people live-streaming the entire thing on TikTok which probably wasn't the greatest of ideas. But all of that aside, we saw something else — people finding out that iPhones shut down the minute they leave the Apple Store they were just stolen from. And it gets worse.

As some on X have already pointed out, iPhones stolen in this manner don't just politely ask you to take them back to where they came from — they do do that as well — but they also start to record their surroundings. You'll note the little green light in the image below.

The result? Stealing an iPhone probably puts your face on camera.

So there we have it. As if stealing an iPhone wasn't already a bad idea, you probably just made it double-easy for the police to identify you.

Oh, and there's more. Each iPhone can be tracked as well, so you might be leading police to your door. Stolen iPhones display on-screen messages that read “The device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted.”

So, yeah. Don't steal iPhones. Or anything else for that matter.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Captain NV
    The trouble is there seems to be no way to get back a stolen iPhone. I lost mine on a roller coaster at Six Flags back in July. I filled out their form, and through tracking watched it move from one location to the roller coaster building. I wiped it when it didn't move to lost and found.

    A month later, it showed up at a residential house. Somebody took it off-property instead of turning it in. Under the advice of a lawyer, I reported the phone stolen to the authorities.

    They were uninterested.

    The lawyer advised me against getting the phone back myself.
    Reply
  • FFR
    Those android users must really want an iPhone
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    Captain NV said:
    The trouble is there seems to be no way to get back a stolen iPhone. I lost mine on a roller coaster at Six Flags back in July. I filled out their form, and through tracking watched it move from one location to the roller coaster building. I wiped it when it didn't move to lost and found.

    A month later, it showed up at a residential house. Somebody took it off-property instead of turning it in. Under the advice of a lawyer, I reported the phone stolen to the authorities.

    They were uninterested.

    The lawyer advised me against getting the phone back myself.
    It's really a sad commentary that the authorities were uninterested. Were you able to at least get a police report, for insurance purposes?
    Reply
  • FFR
    Annie_M said:
    It's really a sad commentary that the authorities were uninterested. Were you able to at least get a police report, for insurance purposes?

    They were arrested
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    FFR said:
    They were arrested
    I was referring to the person who took Captain NV's phone from the amusement park.
    Reply
  • FFR
    Annie_M said:
    I was referring to the person who took Captain NV's phone from the amusement park.

    Mea culpa
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    FFR said:
    Mea culpa
    No worries! :D
    Reply