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First on TMO - Thieves Smash & Grab Laptops at Pittsburgh Apple Store (WITH PHOTOS)
by , 4:50 PM EST, December 22nd, 2004
Police are looking for a black male and black female caught on videotape who broke into an Apple retail store in Pittsburgh Dec. 12, making off with six PowerBook laptops worth over US$9,000.
Pittsburgh police Detective Terry Darling told the Mac Observer Wednesday the thieves used a brick to break a glass door at the stand alone store around 5am EST on Dec. 12.
Surveillance video (click here for still photos) shows one of the two suspects smashing through the glass window. Both suspects then took less than 30 seconds to run through the store ripping 12-, 15-, and 17-inch PowerBook laptops from their security cables.
"They ran through the store very fast," Detective Darling told TMO. "The laptops were locked down, but they just pulled the cables from the stands as hard as they could and ran out."
Detective Darling said the alarm system to the building had been activiated, but failed to sound.
The two suspects are in their late 20s to early 30s, Detective Darling commented. No other items were stolen from the store.
Pittsburgh Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the case.

Caught on videotape, two thieves smash through a glass door at the Pittsburgh Apple store. (Image courtesy Pittsburgh police via WTAE-TV)
Observer Comments
Wed Dec 22, 2004 8:12 pm Subject: Not to excuse the criminals but...
I'll reiteriate what I said in a seperate post: Security cables are pretty tough, but they're not invincible. For instance, I have a Kensington retractable, and its entire integrity depends on this
little peice of plastic here at the top. But locks are like the Club in cars. Not invincible, but then again, not supposed to be. Just a deterrent. If its going to take a theif more than ten seconds to swipe your computer, he's not even going to bother. As for pulling it out of the socket, forget it. Thats actually a bulkhead, and is a key part of the aluminum shell. So, in order to pull it out, you'd literally have to break the alumium in half.
These should be easy tracked down if they are dumb enough to go online and as long as Apple knows the serial numbers for the ones they took. When I returned my PowerBook to Apple to have the screen replaced (white spots), the service rep ran off everything in "About This Mac" to me over the phone, including the hard drive serial number and the mac address of the built in nic. Some creative log searching on an ISP's part would show the mac address in the arp table of the user's access point if they use a broadband connection (just look at the RIAA lately except they tracked IPs). How many broadband ISPs are there in the Pittsburgh area ? I doubt more than 2 or 3 (cable, baby bell DSL, ISDN). And the PowerBooks are probally still there. If I were going to drive out of town to do a smash and grab, I would get more than a few PowerBooks. They were probally local losers. Who knows, these books may even turn up on eBay.
Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:35 pm Subject: Store looks great
Hey yinz. I just checked out the Pittsburgh Apple store about 3 hours ago (2 PM eastern). The store looks pristine! I couldn't believe it. I was sure that, with all that glass, they'd have gaping holes covered over in plastic. But no, the front of the store is completely repaired, and the inside is spotless. Just walking in, you could never tell the store was burgled, and in fact, I asked the staff just to make sure I was at the right Apple store. There's only one in Pittsburgh, but even so, I needed to make sure, because the place looked immaculate.
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