While the past few days have seen a spy saga of a stolen laptop and a few rapidly recovered stolen iPhones, the story at the Sagemore Apple Store in Marlton, New Jersey is more of your basic "five guys vs. a plate-glass door." A well-organized 2 am robbery at the store netted the team a substantial haul of 23 MacBook Pro laptops, 14 iPhones and nine iPod touch handhelds.

Even though the store was staffed with a security guard, the thieves were able to time their run right after his rounds, and clear the merchandise from the store in 31 seconds flat. Security video of the theft is in the 2nd half of this post.

Anyone with tips on the identity of the masked bandits is being asked to call police at 856-983-1118 or the confidential tip line at 856-988-4699.

Thanks to Justin for sending this in. H/T to ifoAppleStore, which (unbeknownst to us) also reported the story yesterday afternoon.

To say that MobileMe hasn't made everyone happy may be a bit of an understatement. We don't generally hear from the satisfied customers, but we have received a fair amount of email from dissatisfied users of Apple's "cloud computing" solution. Given the barrage of negativity, it's nice to hear a positive take now and then. TUAW reader Rob had just the thing ...

While at the dry cleaner one day, Rob's iPhone was stolen. He immediately chalked it up as gone forever, and proceeded to purchase a brand new one that same evening. It was the next day when unfamiliar contacts began to appear on the new phone. The (not-too-bright) thief was unwittingly supplying him with names and phone numbers of his or her closest friends, via the magic of MobileMe synchronization from the stolen phone to the cloud and eventually to his new phone. "It didn't take long for me to realize that MobileMe was leading me right to the thief!" wrote Rob.

Thanks to the fact that he caught on to it before he'd had time to remotely disconnect his account, MobileMe provided the groundwork for a little social engineering. Rob made quick work of wrangling a name and phone number from the provided contacts, supplying the police with everything they needed to get Rob his phone back. By the end of the night, he had his original iPhone in his possession.

There you have it, a MobileMe success story! Sure, this doesn't make up for the problems which have plagued MobileMe, but it's a great story. The recovered phone is "pretty much brand new," according to Rob, and is currently up for auction on ebay.

Thanks for sending this in, Rob!

Looks like unscrupulous poachers are stealing free software. Word this morning is that UK-based iphoneunlockuk.com is selling the otherwise free Pwnage tool and for a hefty �29.99 ($60). Not a bad profit margin for software they neither built nor have the right to distribute.

To quote the iPhone dev team, "We have all put in lots of time to bring you this application for FREE. We didn't license this application to them, we don't license it to anyone." Looks like the miscreants didn't do much to try to cover their tracks either. The application contains the original Pwnage credits and help file. In the words of the dev team, "Stop Thief!"

Pwnage is a free jailbreaking and unlocking tool for the iPhone and iPod touch. Among other things it allows users to access the iPhone's Mac OS X command line and install and run third party applications.

If you're an independent Mac software developer, having a wicked cool icon for your application is both a blessing and a curse. Users will remember you for the sleek, Leopard-ready goodness of your icon ... and other unscrupulous marketers will rip you off shamelessly to promote their own products, rather than ponying up for an original design.

The all-time champion victim (self-reported) of icons ripped off is Panic's Transmit FTP tool; the little truck shows up just about everywhere you could possibly imagine. New to the underground icon market, however, is the 1Password browser-key logo -- it may make you think "Hey, I could drive Safari to the supermarket!" but apparently the makers of ProductKeyFinder, a Windows serial number app, found it too delicious to pass up. The purloined product identity is visible on PKF's eBay sales page and on Flickr. It looks like the packaging has been updated (and the product renamed to Product Key Explorer), so this tale of icon swiping has a happy ending.

Thanks Roustem!

What do you get when you combine 332 iPhones and 2 crooked Apple employees? Felony theft charges, apparently, after a luckless pair of underhanded but enterprising Apple Store workers decided to set up their own iPhone shop using purloined stock from Uncle Steve. Now one is in the slammer, and the other is facing extradition to New Hampshire (from Massachussetts, not from the French Riviera -- too bad for him). This all goes to show, crime does not pay -- especially when you get caught with $132,000 of hot iPhones.

There is no official word as to what color t-shirts the thieves wore in their day-to-day work, or whether either of them could be reasonably classified as Apple Geniuses.

[Via Ars]

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 reduction in the incidents of violent crime, while 2005 and 2006 saw a spike. At the same time, iPod sales were soaring. In 2005 Apple sold 42 million iPod, and almost 90 million in 2006.

Now, we all know that iPods are stolen frequently. They're easy to grab, users are frequently "in their own world" while absorbed in their music and they sell well. It's not difficult (unless the thieves are idiots) but that doesn't mean that a single factor - iPod popularity - is responsible for the national violent crime rate.

Use common sense when walking around with your iPod. Pay attention to your surroundings, keep it inside your clothing if possible (a jacket pocket) or even in your hand and, most importantly, ditch the tell-tale white ear buds. Or just encase it in machined aluminum.

Thanks, Edsel!

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 was to crack open a shipment of 300 iPhones bound for Hong Kong, pull the phones out of the bottom of the shipping crate, throw in some reams of paper for weight and then re-shrinkwrap the package for delivery. Genius!

Unfortunately for the three men, the package didn't look quite right to an airline worker in Hong Kong, who alerted cops. The investigation led back to the Baldwin, LI shipping company that had transferred the iPhone crate, and the drivers who had sold the illicit phones (some on Craigslist) for an $80,000 windfall. The men were arrested in possession of $23,000 (quite a bit of cash already gone on luxury splurges) and just about to move to Florida. Per the NY Daily News:

When he was asked about them last week, the truck drivers' boss said, "It's funny you should be asking about them. They just resigned."

No kidding. I think we've all learned something today... first, if you're going to replace packaged iPhones with something, rock beats paper. Second, 300 iPhones in a crate going to Hong Kong, where they aren't officially on sale? Maybe those 30% unlock estimates aren't so wacky after all.

Thinking about recovering your laptop in case of theft? Undercover from Orbicule (we've mentioned it before once or twice) sports a nice additional "feature" in terms of a money-back guarantee. If your Mac is reported stolen Undercover will monitor and report IP addresses that should narrow down the search, as well as take both screenshots and iSight snapshots at regular intervals and send them back.

Finally, it will mimic a hardware problem presumably prompting the thief to take it in for repair or sell it, in which case it will display a message indicating that the computer has been stolen, etc. Orbicule is apparently so confident that Undercover will allow you to recover your machine that they're offering a money-back guarantee for the cost of the software if you do not. They have an interesting account of the recovery process in an actual case.

Undercover is $49 ($39 for students; education site licenses are available).

[via Daring Fireball]

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 think about whether you're making yourself a possible target.

1. Put your iPod in a pocket. It's easier to grab an iPod from someone's hand than from a backpack, purse or pocket.

2. Switch from white earbuds. Those white earbuds are an easy iPod "tell" according to police. Use less identifiable third party earphones of another color or shape.

3. Lower the volume. Step out of the iPod daze and become more aware of your surroundings.

Our sister-site Engadget tracked down this bicycle-style iPod lock from Japan's Elecom. For about $40, the lock offers a multi-digit combination and a reinforced cable. It's clearly meant for people who want to enjoy their iPod in places that suffer from theft-by-taking such as the gym (attach it to the handles of your elliptical trainer) or the office (attach it to the heavier furniture in your cubicle). The locks are built for 5G video iPods and 1G and 2G nanos. The Elecom site is all in Japanese and it's unclear (even if you can navigate the page) whether they process overseas orders.

As the holiday season approaches, so too does prime time for laptop theft. There are a few commercial (Undercover from Orbicule, MacPhoneHome and LoJack for Laptops) and beta-in-progress (iAlertU from SlappingTurtle) options for tracking down your missing Mac, but for basic intelligence on machine intrusion attempts, a tip this morning on MacOSXHints gives a DIY approach to finding out who's been messin' where they shouldnta been a-messin'. With a basic script for capturing iSight stills and a check of a system log file for invalid login attempts, this tiny dancer will grab snapshots of your nosy coworkers or your thumbfingered spouse as they try to get into your machine.

If you're serious about preventing theft or facilitating recovery, probably best to go with either Undercover or this tip from Lifehacker via Laurie. Either way -- let's be careful out there.

Update 4:30pm: Of course, I forgot to mention that LANrev v4 has new anti-theft features. Brain... so... full... -- and of course it's SLAPPINGturtle. Argh!

Thanks Jeff L. and David C.!

Talk about MacHeist, indeed. More than thirty five thousand dollars worth of iPod inventory are missing from a Pembroke Pines, Florida Best Buy store and the lack of forced entry is making police think that this may have been an inside job. About 175 iPods, valued at about $200 each, disappeared.

So what would you personally do with 175 iPods? I mean, outside of the obvious reselling on eBay or on a street corner situation? I suppose you could use them to decorate a Christmas tree in a techno-white theme or you could create a fairly funky chandelier. Nope, I'm betting these babies are eBay fodder.

The iPod is being turned into everything from Halloween costumes to stethoscope training tools, and now it apparently is being used to help steal hundreds of millions of dollars - in Hollywood movies, that is (don't worry, this won't be a spoiler).

Apparently Harrison Ford uses an iPod to permanently borrow $100 million from his bank in the new Firewall flick. Rick Warner, over at Bloomberg, already critiqued it quite nicely: "I don't doubt that computerized banking is ripe for theft, but the way Ford does it [sic] seems as far-fetched as James Frey's resume."

While I think it's great that the iPod and Apple are receiving all this fantastic buzz, I'm having a hard time understanding how silly product placement like this benefits anyone, let alone who instigated it. How far is stuff like this going to go? Are we going to see exploding iPods hurled down hallways to destroy genetically modified monsters in a forthcoming sequel to Doom? Here's hoping Harrison doesn't have to decode an ancient culture's chant with nothing more than his 'trusty' iPod in Indiana Jones 4.

[via iLounge]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=a4uL2l7YM5G8&refer=culture

On Tuesday, two idiots in Australia walked into a business and stole a 17" Powerbook. They then proceeded to attach a modem and actually checked the owner's email. As a result, the owner now has an IP address used by the thieves. He also has video and still footage from security cameras in his business as well as pictures of the car the thieves drove away in.

The owner has posted most of this information up on an eBay Australian auction and has been running a full-court press offensive with the media. The police are involved and are helping to try track down the thieves.

But it gets better! The thieves apparently called the owner from a "withheld" phone number at 2:20am and were angry that so much attention has been called to their crime. They've offered to return the stolen Powerbook but it apparently hasn't happened yet.

Via del.icio.us.

Jay Allen at Blogging Baby asks if it's ethical to round up a group of sixth graders after a teacher had an iPod stolen at a middle school in Texas.

Sure, an iPod is worth quite a bit, but Jay Allen posits that patting down middle school students is not the best example to set. Go voice your opinion about whether or not your favorite little white (or black) music player warrants a round-up-and-search.