The Great iPhone Heist of 2009

Nov 17 2009, 9:42am CST | by Robert Evans

Sherlock Holmes is coming out in theaters next month, but where he's really needed right now is Belgium. That's where a cadre of clever criminals have absconded with 3-4,000 iPhones (AppleInsider). Local reports can't seem to agree on exactly how many phones were stolen from a warehouse belonging to CEVA Logistics in the city of Willebroek.

The actual heist sounds like a traditional 'Mission Impossible' type of break-in. The thieves climbed onto the roof and then cut a hole into it, dropped down into the building, and lifted roughly $3 million USD in smartphones. Considering the level of inside knowledge required to pull something like this off, it's likely one of the criminals had inside information.

Even if the team responsible for the heist is never caught, they may not be able to make a profit off of their ill-gotten gains. The serial numbers on all of the stolen phones are known, so Mobistar (the carrier they were bound for) can block all of the devices from their network. Of course, if the thieves can smuggle the iPhones out of the country, they might be able to get around that.

These criminals are bad people, theft can never be tolerated, and I wish Belgian law enforcement the best of luck in retrieving the phones. That said...doesn't this news strike you as a little badass? It sounds more like the plot to a cyberpunk story than real news. Whoever these thieves are, they have style. And some skill; the police currently have no leads.

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Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.