Over $100,000 worth of iPhone 5 devices have been stolen before the official release in Japan. The robberies occurred in the early hours of Friday morning before the official launch. As of noon today, three stores in the city have been robbed.
Authorities have said that 33 iPhone 5's were missing from one KDDI Corp stores in Ibaraki city. Two hours later 116 devices and a store display were stolen from Softbank Corp in the western district of Osaka city. Police say they were taken from a back room that was locked within a span of four minutes. The footage shows that there were three culprits, all which are likely to be male. Another store in Ibaraki was also robbed of 42 iPhone 5's, however police say they are uncertain if it's related as they have not yet checked security footage.
The high cost of Apple devices makes them a frequent target of theft and these incidents are likely to make device availability a little more difficult in the area.
The iPhone 5 has seen the most successful launch to date of any iPhone, landing over two million pre-orders in the first 24 hours.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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