APPLE
PICKING
A FINANCIAL INCENTIVE
The street-level cell phone thieves
tend to be young men in their
teens and early 20s. Some work in
teams, handing off stolen phones
to partners so they aren’t caught
holding hot property. One group of
thieves in D.C., who called themselves the “Swisha Splash Boys,”
worked by swiping iPhones from
Metro riders and running off just
as the train doors closed.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier
first noticed the problem two
years ago. At the time, robberies
were rising and thieves were making specific demands. “It was just
odd,” she recalled in an interview.
“They were passing up other valuables and just asking for phones.”
Last March, Lanier connected
this street crime to a distribution
network: District police arrested
employees at 13 local businesses
for allegedly selling stolen iPhones
and other electronics. Two years
ago, New York police arrested 141
employees of barber shops, newsstands, convenience stores and
other businesses for allegedly selling stolen iPhones and iPads.
Around the country, thefts of
Apple products have become so
commonplace that law enforcement has developed new methods
HUFFINGTON
03.24.13
of luring and apprehending criminals. In D.C., undercover officers
ride subways and pretend to be
homeless, drunk or asleep while
holding out cell phones, pouncing when thieves take the bait.
New York police officers have collected serial numbers of newlypurchased iPhones outside Apple
“T HIEVES NOWADAYS DON’T CARE
ABOUT THE MONEY IN YOUR WALLET.
THEY CARE ABOUT YOUR PHONE … ”
stores so they are able to track
stolen devices and return them to
their rightful owners.
Phone companies have joined
the effort by closing a gap that has
facilitated the black market for
stolen phones. For years, wireless
carriers blocked stolen phones
from being used on their own systems by shutting down their SIM
cards, the tiny removable chips
that connect each device to a particular network. But thieves simply replaced blocked SIM cards
with new ones and resold phones
for use on other networks.
Last April, under pressure from
the Federal Communications
Commission and police chiefs,