Today’s the day we’ve all been eagerly waiting for — iPhone 5 day. But apparently not everyone was able to wait as long. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that thieves in Japan have broken into carrier stores just hours before the launch and stolen more than $100,000 worth of Apple’s iPhone 5.
Osaka police said that 191 iPhone 5s were stolen in the early morning leading up to the official release. As of Friday at noon, three stores were found burglarized across Japan’s western metropolis. Softbank and KDDI’s stores were both robbed. Police have estimated that the largest robbery saw 116 units stolen from Softbank, which was worth about 7.45 million yen or $95,000. Later a third store was targeted, taking 42 iPhone 5s. It’s unclear if the three incidents, which all occured in close proximity, are related and no suspects have been identified.
This definitely puts a damper on iPhone 5 day, but it’s not likely that these stolen devices will impact Apple’s over all sales too much, although it may add stress to supply and demand. In the first twenty-four hours of pre-order, Apple sold more than 2 million units, pushing new pre-order shipping times back to 3-4 weeks.
Source: The Wall Street Journal and Nikkei via Tech In Asia via The Next Web
Image Credit: GlobalPost
