A pair of thieves made off with $35,000 of Apple merchandise in a brazen daylight robbery in front of scared customers and store workers in Palo Alto, Calif., on Black Friday, police said.
Video shows the seemingly unarmed duo yanking multiple iPhones and laptops from display tables and pushing past customers — but largely not being stopped or challenged by customers or employees in the busy store.
During the crime, an Apple employee heard one of the thieves threaten violence against anyone who tried to stop them, police acting Capt. James Reifschneider told Palo Alto Online, adding that the incident was reported at 4:17 p.m. Nov. 25.
The video of the robbery has circulated online, showing the two robbers with their faces mostly covered, walking from table to table and stuffing items into their bags.
Store employees can be seen ushering customers away from the incident, and someone can be heard telling people to back up.
One person can be heard in the video saying, “Yo, should we stop them?”
According to police, that threat of violence elevates the crime from a burglary shoplift to a robbery. No weapons were seen and no one was injured during the incident.
The robbers fled in a red Mazda3 hatchback and were spotted by a security guard who saw them traveling north on U.S. Highway 101.
Police have not made any arrests, but say they are looking for two black males in their late teens or early 20s.
One of the suspects was wearing a blue hoodie and black pants while the other was wearing a gray hoodie and blue jeans. In the video, both can be seen carrying backpacks as they yank devices off their displays at the store.
In 2018, the same store was robbed twice within 24 hours, with thieves heisting over $100,000 in merchandise, and in 2016, burglars smashed a rented car through the store’s front and made off with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.
