Federal prosecutors say three men planned and carried out a violent hijacking of an Apple truck outside a New York shopping mall and successfully made off with more than $1 million worth of iPhones, MacBooks and other Apple products. The armed robbery, which took place in January this year, involved more than $1.2 million. The stolen items included iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, Apple Watches and various accessories. Authorities described the robbery as a well-planned, coordinated operation in which the suspects threatened delivery workers at gunpoint to get inside the truck and then transfer the goods to another vehicle.
The three suspects are Alan Christopher Cedeno-Ferrer, Michael Messia-Nunez and Enette Alexis Siret-Padilla. At the time of the incident, delivery workers were unloading Apple products outside the Manhasset Mall when multiple masked men armed with pistols suddenly got out of a black Honda Accord and approached the victim. The suspects then forced the workers to a nearby location, where one worker was restrained in the back of the truck with zip ties during the robbery. Another worker was forced into the driver's seat and ordered to drive to a secluded parking area behind an office building less than half a mile away. The suspects then trapped the two workers in the cargo hold while they moved the Apple products to a second vehicle.
Prosecutors described the incident as an organized theft of goods. The robbery gang used a second truck to receive the transferred goods, and surveillance video showed a Home Depot box truck following the hijacked Apple transport vehicle to a nearby secondary transfer location. The suspects aligned the rear cargo bays of two vehicles to quickly move Apple products out of public view. After the cargo transfer was completed, the suspect closed the cargo door, leaving the victim still trapped inside and fled the scene. One of the workers later managed to free himself and called 911.
The three defendants later appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty. The court ordered that they be held without bail pending trial. ABC News first reported the arrests and details of the apple truck hijacking.
Prosecutors noted that Apple shipments remain a major target for organized theft gangs. A single shipment to a busy Apple store can contain hundreds of devices that are ready for sale, and organized theft rings are increasingly targeting shipments of consumer electronics before the products reach the retail store. Apple products have repeatedly been targeted in mass thefts because of their high resale value in relatively compact packaging. Even with protections like activation locks and device management systems in place, stolen Apple hardware can still retain value through unauthorized resale channels and parts teardown businesses. Investigators said the suspect appeared to be intentionally reducing his visibility near the mall, first moving the truck to a quieter secondary location before moving the merchandise into another enclosed vehicle.