Surveillance video of a robbery on Saturday morning shows a group of men snagging dozens of items worth tens of thousands of dollars at the Fresno Apple Store inside Fashion Fair Mall. Within seconds, the four young men, each of which were wearing hoodies, had picked up 26 devices totaling $27,000 from the store.
Lt. Mark Hudson of the Fresno Police Department told ABC30 News following the incident that “various iPhones, the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 and 8, and even the new iPhone X was taken in this grand theft.”
As you can see in the footage below, the group ran into the Apple Store and immediately started ripping laptops and phones from their displays while customers and employees watched. Near the end of the video, a man stands in front of the door to try and impede the escaping thieves, but he is quickly pushed aside:
“One customer stood by the door to prevent them from leaving but was knocked out of the way,” said Lt. Hudson. “Right now we are looking for four, or five, we believe there was a getaway driver, black males anywhere from 16 to 18 years old.” Police also note that no weapons were displayed by the suspects.
Investigators are reviewing the footage both in an attempt to identify the suspects and to see if there might be any connections between this robbery and a similar incident that occurred in San Luis Obispo last month.
“There are other reports, of other places, other cities in California that have had these kinds of takeover thefts,” said Lt. Hudson. “So we are looking into (this crime) being connected to other crimes, at any other Apple Stores outside of Fresno.”
