New Hampshire man is victim of first recorded iPad theft

Someone has to be first, I suppose. Straight from the police iBlotter in Manchester, NH, the Union Leader reports that a broad-daylight iPad theft was perpetrated in the parking lot of a Best Buy on South Willow Street.

Mohamed Aboutaleb of Dover had just bought his new iPad in the store (capacity and accessories not known) when he was the victim of a shove-and-grab theft. The teenage thief then fled with Aboutaleb's magical and revolutionary shopping bag via a getaway car driven by another teenager.

While progress is being made on the iPad jailbreak (via Dev Team member MuscleNerd), these real-world lawbreakers are still unidentified and on the loose. Anyone with information about the iMugging is encouraged to contact the Manchester police department.

As a public safety reminder, whenever you are carrying easily-identifiable high value packages around (such as an Apple Store or other electronics chain shopping bag), be aware of your surroundings as you return your purchases to your car or if you are using public transport. Putting your new gadgets in the trunk and proceeding to do other shopping isn't advisable either.

To answer the question posed in comments: yes, you can activate MobileMe's location tools with your iPad to track it down, but that's not really an option if it's grabbed in the parking lot before you sync it up.

Thanks Marc!

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/banspy/ / CC BY 2.0

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Source: http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Gone+in+…

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Someone has to be first, I suppose. Straight from the police iBlotter in Manchester, NH, the Union Leader reports that a broad-daylight...

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leolux10

It sucks to be him! Next time, he'd better keep an "i" out, before heading back to the "Pad".

=P

April 06 2010 at 4:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

thalazy

Sucks for that guy. I knew the thought crossed my mind while walking out of the Apple store with my new iPad Saturday evening. I made sure of my surroundings while make the trip back to my car. I doubt the thieves will be caught and the guy will just have to save up and buy a new one or buy it online and avoid the stores.

April 06 2010 at 4:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

prather

Was the thief a jew or hispanic, the story didn't say.

April 05 2010 at 11:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to prather's comment

Michael Rose

Two white kids.

Are you a racist or just a jerk? Your comment didn't say.

April 06 2010 at 1:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kelly Guimont

This is one reason I always keep a resuable bag with me, particularly if I'm tech shopping. Yeah yeah, environment and all of that, but my plain black bag doesn't say "HI COME TAKE MY EXPENSIVE THING FROM ME KTHXBY!!"

That said, it really sucks and hopefully reporting the serial number as stolen will get him someplace.

April 04 2010 at 9:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dustin

Maybe you should actually use one before you make all these assumptions

-Sent from my iPad

:P

April 04 2010 at 8:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sounds like it happened at the Mall of NH. I'm from Manchester and that's the only local reseller (Best Buy in this case) in the area that I know of.

April 04 2010 at 7:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Adam

I remember going with a friend to pick up the Nintendo Wii's we had reserved at the initial release. Some guy had been shot over the PS3 release that weekend. I drove an old sports car back then, I think my friend drove a Sable so after he met up with me, I said, "I'm driving".

April 04 2010 at 6:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

SIP

I'm sad for the man...

April 04 2010 at 6:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jeff

and then theres this video from google reader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGUppxoJUVg

involving a bunch of teens taking a baseball bat to an ipad

coincidence? I think not.

April 04 2010 at 5:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jesuspowerim

You know, that would have never happened if he was open carrying. This is new hampshire after all.

April 04 2010 at 4:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply