Four Arrested for Stealing iPhone Shipment

Four men have been arrested for the attempted theft of nearly 300 Apple iPhones, worth around US$150,000. The handsets were due to be shipped from the USA's JFK Airport to Hong Kong, but the cargo was replaced by bundles of paper to make up the weight.

The thieves may have got away with the crime, as the theft was only discovered once the cargo arrived at the Cathay Pacific center in Hong Kong. However, two of the thieves who worked at the warehouse suddenly quit their jobs and went on an unexplained spending spree, which caused concerns with their employer. Workers at the Hong Kong cargo center also noticed the sloppy repackaging of the boxes which raised suspicions.

Two employees of the warehouse, 20-year-old Emmanuel Etienne and 22-year-old Jarred  Thomas have been arrested, along with accomplice, 20-year-old Duane Carlos. 21-year-old Emil V. Shamailov was also arrested as the suspect who allegedly sold the phones once they had been stolen. Authorities say he was caught trying to sell some of the stolen phone on Craigslist.

They were caught with some $23,000 in cash on them.

"I should also note the suspects were planning on moving to Florida today," said Nassau County Det. Lt. John Azzata after their arrest.

In light of recent analyst concerns about the scale of iPhones being sold and not used on approved networks, it is also interesting to note that this story highlights there was a fairly sizeable cargo shipment of iPhones being sent to Hong Kong.

Someone has presumably a method of aquiring bulk qantities of iPhones and reselling them without connecting them to the AT&T network.

Posted to the site on 30th January 2008