In New York Police Arrest 141 Vendors Suspected Of Selling Stolen iPhones

As The New York Post reports, on the last week the New York Police Department conducted a sting targeting merchants that were suspected of trading in stolen iPhones. The NYPD spokeperson Paul Browne said that undecover police officers sold iPhone 4S and iPad 2 at more than 600 locations asking from $50 to $200 after stating that these devices were stolen.

This sting which results in 141 arrests of workers and clerks at businesses such as barbershops, bodegas, supermarkets and pawnshops has been conducted for six days last week. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said:

“That’s our intention, to reduce the places where people who steal these things can go and sell them.”

“If someone is offering you an iPad for way below market value, you have to realize that it’s most likely stolen.”

An officer in a New York precinct said that iPhones became popular targets for thieves and the device is involved in more than half of the reported robberies in some months.

The high popularity of Apple’s products has driven not only active market in resales of the stolen devices, but also in counterfeiting them. Apple has actively targeted merchant participating in selling knockoff Apple products, seeking to close these companies generating profits on its brand with conterfeit devices.