French Apple store looters get unpleasant surprise on stolen iPhones: ‘disabled and being tracked’
iHope you weren’t planning on getting away with it.
Looters who descended on a French Apple Store during the chaotic riots were reportedly greeted with warnings from their ill-gotten gains that the merchandise was being locked and tracked.
Viral video from the aftermath of the looting of the Lille Apple Store on Oct. 17 shows one of the thieves flashing the security warning on the stolen iPhone.
“Please return the device to Apple Lille. This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted,” the alert read.
Apple’s products famously flash such warnings when they detect that they have been stolen from stores, with many on social media mocking the thieves who were seen rummaging through the seller over the weekend.
“Protesters raided an Apple Store in Lille France yesterday, dumbest move ever,” one person posted on X.
“Taking iPhones that will get blocked 2 minutes later, the morons,” another person added.
“Those products will be blocked and their location will be identified,” another user correctly predicted.
The Lille Apple location was among the major luxury goods stores that were hit across the nation during Saturday’s mass protest, with rioters also going after Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Dior stores.
In Bordeaux, a masked crowd was seen breaking down the doors to a Louis Vuitton store, as a parade of protesters waved red flags with hammer and sickle signs along the street.
In Marseille, looters targeted luxury brand Hermes, as well as stores selling jewelry, makeup and clothes.
The demonstrations, which began over education and the cost of living crisis, quickly descended into chaos, with about 1,800 people arrested and more than 500 officers injured.
Insurance costs over the riots are expected to hit between $1.3 to $1.6 billion, according to the Morningstar investment firm, nearly double the price from the 2023 riots over the police shooting of Nahel Merzouk.