In order to steal Apple iPhones, five thieves carefully planned the operation. One of them infiltrated a logistics company responsible for transporting Apple iPhones and stayed undercover for half a year. Eventually, when the iPhone 4s was launched, they took advantage of the opportunity to ship goods to the United States. Four members of the ticketing company were accused of fraud due to private alteration of flight tickets and were prosecuted. They replaced the iPhones with plastic modules of the same weight and stole 1,680 iPhone 4s units.
The problem may have occurred during transportation. Apple USA claimed that the phones had been swapped.
On January 5th this year, after receiving the report, the Pudong police immediately launched an investigation. Based on the plastic modules sent back from the U.S., investigators found that both the inner and outer packaging boxes were original. The plastic modules replaced inside weighed exactly the same as the phones. Since the plastic modules weighed the same as the phones, the staff did not detect any abnormalities during the weighing process before the cargo was loaded onto the plane.
According to the confession of one of the suspects, Fan, he and others were acquainted with the truck driver Wu, who had previously worked as a driver for the logistics company and was very familiar with the entire logistics process for exported goods. After some inquiries, they learned about the routes and companies involved in transporting Apple phones by a certain Shanghai company. In June 2010, after careful planning, Wu obtained fake ID and driving license under the name "Li Wei" and was hired into the logistics fleet involved in this case. In November 2011, they heard that the iPhone 4s would soon be launched and that the electronic company responsible for assembly was the same one they targeted, so they decided it was time to act. By the end of November, they spent 50,000 yuan to customize a batch of plastic modules with the exact weight of the phones, along with some packaging boxes.
On December 26, 2011, at 1:25 PM, Fan and four others, along with Wu, replaced and took away 1,680 phones. On December 28, Fan and others sold each phone for 1,400 yuan to Ji, after which they fled separately.
After investigation, the police basically confirmed that Fan and three others, along with truck driver Li Wei, were the suspects in the theft of the iPhone 4s phones. On the evening of January 18, 2012, the police successively arrested the four suspects, including Fan, in Putuo District, Shanghai, and in Haimen City and Qidong City, Jiangsu Province. On February 2, the logistics company truck driver Wu (alias Li Wei) was captured in Chongqing.
According to Fan's confession, Fan and others were already acquainted with truck driver Wu. They all had experience working as drivers for the logistics company and were very familiar with the entire export logistics process. After making inquiries, they learned about the routes and companies involved in transporting Apple phones by a certain Shanghai company. Thus, in June 2010, after careful planning, Wu obtained a fake ID and driving license under the name "Li Wei" and was hired into the logistics fleet involved in this case. In November 2011, they heard that the iPhone 4s would soon be launched and that the electronic company responsible for assembly was the same one they targeted, so they decided it was time to act. By the end of November, they spent 50,000 yuan to customize a batch of plastic modules with the exact weight of the phones, along with some packaging boxes.
After analyzing the four transportation stages, investigators judged that the most likely problem occurred between the electronic company warehouse and the logistics company warehouse. After interviews, investigators found that the logistics company subcontracted the transportation task to another logistics fleet. On December 26, 2011, this fleet dispatched four vehicles to transport the batch of iPhone 4s phones.
After the investigation, it was discovered that these phones were resold six times through different channels. The top-level seller was a Shanghai man named Ji. Coincidentally, Ji arrived in Shanghai by plane three days after the incident, on December 28, 2011. The next day, he sent a large shipment of goods to Shenzhen from Shanghai, after which the Shenzhen market began selling iPhone 4s phones.
During the investigation, Apple found that more and more stolen phones were being used. Based on this, investigators located several of the phone owners. They reported that they purchased their iPhone 4s phones from a certain online specialty store in Nanjing for 4,900 yuan each, shipped by a man named "Ye Yi" from Shenzhen to Shanghai.
Through investigating the flow of funds, investigators found that on December 29, 2011, Ji's wife transferred over 2 million yuan to a Shanghai account. The account holder was a woman whose boyfriend, Fan, had three close friends. Interestingly, on December 22, Fan booked two rooms at a hotel in Yangsi, Pudong, and checked in with his three friends simultaneously.
After succeeding, the five thieves split the money and fled separately. Recently, after more than ten days of meticulous investigation, the police successfully apprehended all five suspects.