Apple retailers including JB Hi Fi have been warned to take precautions after a spate of robberies on IT shops in NSW.
Last night thieves smashed into the Apple Mac Store in Surry Hills. In March a smash and grab raid on the Apple Bondi netted thieves notebooks, phones and iPads.
Inigo Evans, owner of the Mac Centre store at 241 Commonwealth Street, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his security company called him at 3:20am to notify him of the robbery. Three thieves had entered using sledgehammers around 3:05am and were in and out in a matter of minutes.
“They jimmied the roller door at the front and destroyed that, then they sledge hammered through the front door glass, which is strengthened glass, and then three guys climbed through the hole wearing balaclavas and gloves,” he said.
“They got into the secure stock room as well – they used a crowbar to get in – and then they took $25,000 worth of Apple laptops, Kingston memory and a couple of iPads.”
Evans said the thieves used their sledgehammer to knock the alarm system and siren off the wall. He said they only stole new, packaged goods as opposed to the used products he had in the store.
“They’re obviously looking for a quick sale on eBay or whatever,” he said.
Detective Inspector Ana Loughman, of the Bondi Beach local area command said that the Bondi robbery on the Apple store was still being investigated.
A Sydney based JB Hi Fi Manager said that they had been warned to take precautions. Meanwhile a Happy Hocker executive said that a warning had been syndicated to pawn shops for stolen Apple gear.
Detective Inspector Loughman told Fairfax Media that there were similarities between the Bondi robbery and last night’s raid on the Surry Hills Mac store: “Although there appears to be similarity in what they are targeting and how they’ve entered the store I can’t definitively say that they’re the same offenders,” she said.
“It could be that one of the group has teamed up with another two guys and they’ve hit the [Surry Hills] store. My investigators are well aware of [today’s] incident and so we are sharing information with the city detectives.”
Evans said that police at the scene had told him there had been a “spate” of robberies targeting technology companies in Sydney.
