Crime Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Thieves steal iPad, finger

by Mike Schramm (Apr 20th, 2010)

Ugh, this is a grisly one -- Bill Jordan picked up an iPad for someone else the other day from an Apple Store in a Colorado mall near him, and as he walked away, some thieves grabbed his bag away so quickly that it took part of his finger off. Scary stuff -- apparently two young men followed him ...

Find my iPhone rescues two phones at Busch Gardens

by Mel Martin (Feb 25th, 2010)

It was like something out of CSI. The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the snatched iPhones incident began when a mom and her stepdaughter were getting aboard the SheiKra roller coaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. The theme park provides unlocked storage bins for people to put things ...

Stolen laptop returned courtesy Back to My Mac information and police work

by Mel Martin (Dec 15th, 2009)

In late August we told you the story of 'Jim' who had his Mac laptop stolen along with some other computers and household goods. For the heck of it, he tried using Back to My Mac to find his machine. Back to My Mac is a feature of Apple's MobileMe service. Jim was surprised to find the Mac was ...

Apple thefts continue, but don't work so well for the crooks

by Mel Martin (Sep 2nd, 2009)

Another day, another dumb criminal gets snared by Apple technology. In this case, 2 dumb criminals. This latest foiled crime involved the theft of 4 iPhones from the Apple Palisades store in West Nyack, New York. According to the Journal News up that way, the two crooks ran from the store, and ...

World's dumbest crooks: the saga continues

by Mel Martin (Sep 1st, 2009)

Yesterday we told you about some crooks that broke into a house and made off with a couple of Macs and a PC. We recounted how the victim used his replacement MacBook Pro to screen share with the stolen device, and even watch as someone filled out an online form to find a job, displaying an address, ...

An incredible stolen Mac story without a final chapter

by Mel Martin (Aug 31st, 2009)

Update 2:30p ET 9/1: We've heard more from the theft victim; see the latest news on this crime story here. We're getting our share of crime stories lately, and today's is really a jaw dropper. I'm going to be sketchy on details and locations because there is an investigation underway. Here's ...

iPhone turns Pittsburgh man into Columbo, helps cops catch robbers

by Mel Martin (Aug 30th, 2009)

The MobileMe Find my iPhone service certainly paid off for a Pittsburgh area man. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that police said the man was robbed at gunpoint in Shadyside (a neigborhood on the east side of Pittsburgh, home to an Apple Store) by two men who asked for his credit cards and the ...

Chicago Apple Store bricked Tuesday night

by Robert Palmer (May 20th, 2009)

Police say an inebriated man threw a brick at the front window of Chicago's Magnificent Mile Apple Store on Tuesday night. The man also broke another window a short distance away. A Tribune photo shows a single broken panel of glass in front of one of Apple's "giant iPhone" displays. From the ...

Wired: 'iPhone takes screenshots of everything you do'

by Robert Palmer (Sep 11th, 2008)

On your iPhone or your iPod touch, when you press the Home button, there's a nice little animation that takes you back to the home screen. To create that animation, your iPhone takes a screenshot of whatever it is you're doing, and uses it for the transition. Sounds innocent, right? Not so much, ...

Is the iPod responsible for national crime wave?

by Dave Caolo (Mar 5th, 2008)

Website MassLive.com is suggesting that there's a positive correlation between the increase in crime that occurred in the US during 2005 and 2006 and the popularity of the iPod (this isn't the first time we've seen such a suggestion). Washington's Urban Institute noted that the 1990's saw a ...

Dumb and dumber: truck drivers replace iPhones with paper

by Michael Rose (Jan 25th, 2008)

Sometimes I wonder if the frequent use of the terms "unlock" and "jailbreak" in conversations about the iPhone has caused a cognitive break for people who would otherwise keep to the straight and narrow. Case in point: two New York truckdrivers and an accomplice decided the best way to easy money ...

NY Daily News declares iPod Public Enemy #1

by Michael Rose (Sep 28th, 2007)

The NY Daily News is a sober organ, not given to rank hyperbole or overstatement like that other NYC tabloid pictured here, with my all-time favorite headline. (I'm kidding -- the News still has its moments, even if the Post is by far the nuttier paper.) That said, it's troubling to find a note of ...

3 iPod defense techniques

by Erica Sadun (May 10th, 2007)

iPod theft is a growing crime of opportunity. Ira Mellman of WTOP radio offers several iPod self-defense techniques to help you avoid becoming a victim of iPod theft. Here's my quick and easy summary of the better points. Yes, it's really just common sense, but hopefully these tips will help you ...

Should iPods be banned?

by Erica Sadun (Dec 19th, 2006)

iPods inspire lust in ways rarely seen historically outside of, say, tulip fetishes. They are certainly the most frequently stolen consumer devices on Earth. So do iPods, in and of themselves, cause crime? Consider the evidence. Here's just a quick googling of iPod-related crimes from last Friday, ...