Oct. 19, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Police are looking for three teens who have stolen thousands of dollars worth of iPhones and Apple watches from stores across the city in an ongoing grand larceny scheme from September through to last week.
The teens, according to police, have a modus operandi where one of the teens steals phones and Apple watches out of the display cases, while the others act as lookouts. In some thefts all three were involved, while in others just one or two of the suspects stole the items.
They have mostly targeted mobile phone stores across Queens, but have also stolen items from a store in the Bronx and a store in Brooklyn, according to police reports.
Two of the teens first stole three Apple watches on display at a Flushing T-Mobile store, located at 57-23 Main St., on Sept. 11 at 4:35 p.m. They fled on foot with the watches, which are worth approximately $1,460, police said.
Two days later two of the suspects stole a $1,100 Apple iPhone 11 from a store display at a T-Mobile store in South Jamaica, located at 122-15 Guy R Brewer Blvd., around 3:30 p.m. About an hour later, two of the teens stole a $1,000 Apple iPhone 11 Pro from a Verizon store, located at 117-14 Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills and ran off towards 77th Avenue, police said.
Two days later, on Sept. 15, all three suspects walked into an AT&T store in the Bronx around 6:25 p.m. and grabbed two apple watches, worth more than $1,000 and fled in a black vehicle, according to the NYPD.
Two of the teens returned to Queens two days later on Sept. 17 and allegedly stole a $1,400 Samsung Galaxy S20 from an Auburndale T-Mobile store at 198-25 Horace Harding Expy. around 2:45 p.m. police said.
More than a week later, one of three teens walked into a Bayside AT&T store, located at 38-27 Bell Blvd., and stole two Apple iPhone 11 Pros, worth $2,100, at 5:35 p.m. on Sept. 27, according to police.
One of the teens hit another AT&T store two days later, this time in Fresh Meadows at 61-44 188th St. and grabbed two more Apple iPhone 11 Pros from the store display and fled on foot, police said.
On Sept. 30 between 6 and 6:30 p.m., two of the suspects stole iPhones from an AT&T store in Auburndale and a Verizon store in Little Neck — altogether worth more than $2,500, according to the NYPD.
The teens stole more phones this month.
On Oct.2, two of the three grabbed two iPhones from a Verizon store in Brooklyn just before 7 p.m. and fled on foot, police said.
Two days later, two of the teens stole three iPhones from a AT&T store, located at 167-13 Union Tpke. in Hillcrest at 4:10 p.m., police said.
Then on Oct. 13, at 3:10 p.m., one of the three teens stole two Apple watches from a T-Mobile store in Auburndale located at 194-16 Northern Blvd. and fled on foot. Police said the watches are valued at $1,160.
The NYPD released descriptions of the three suspects, who are believed to be between 16 and 18 years old. One is described as a dark-skinned male with a medium build and black hair. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, black sweat pants with white stripes on the sides, white “NIKE” sneakers and white face mask, police said.
Another is described as a dark-skinned male with a slim build who was last seen wearing a black hoodie sweater, gray shorts and white sneakers.
The third is described as a dark-skinned male with a medium build and black hair who was last seen wearing all black clothing, a black face mask and white sneakers, police said.
Suspects (NYPD)
Anyone with information in regard to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
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One Comment
hopefully the stores hit have insurance.
in any case, pretty easy for the carriers to blacklist the imei on all the devices and remotely brick/disable.