Apple products worth $ 300,000 stolen in Australia Apple store

• Thieves stole $ 300,000 worth of iPhones and other Apple products after smashing the window of an Australian Apple Store with a hammerhead on Tuesday morning, police said in Perth Now and other press organs in Perth.
• An inspector told the media in Perth that Apple had identified the stolen devices and turned them off, thus making them useless for anyone wishing to buy them.
• An Apple patent dated May indicated that Apple was considering a wireless security system that would prevent the activation and use of the non-purchased iPhones if they were not far from the store . It is not known if this method was used to disable stolen devices.
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The thieves used a hammer to break the window of an Apple Store in Perth, Western Australia on Tuesday morning, and stole iPhones and other products worth $ 300,000, the police said. Perth Now and other Perth media outlets. We first saw reports on 9to5Mac.

However, Apple knows what devices were stolen and disabled them, police officer Matt Whelan told Perth Media. This would mean that stolen iPhones are now about as useful as a brick.

Apple was considering a kind of security measure on its devices to prevent theft, as revealed by a patent filed by the company in May. The security measure described in the patent suggested that iPhones stolen from the store could not be configured with user accounts if they were remote from a store's wireless security system.

It is unclear whether the stolen iPhones were disabled with this security method, and Apple did not confirm that the stolen devices were actually disabled. Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Read more: Ex-employees of the Apple Store reveal the biggest mistakes made by customers at Genius Bar

Stolen devices can be sold to unsuspecting buyers at a price below their selling price, making them an attractive option, especially for popular devices such as Apple iPhones.

But anyone who buys a stolen device during this flight in Perth may discover a "brick" iPhone. That is, the device can turn on, but is otherwise useless because it does not allow the person to log in to his or her Apple ID account or configure the device. iPhone for normal use.

There is still a potential for selling masonry units against coins, which would be a benefit to the thieves who got the devices with a hammer rather than money. But an iPhone sold for parts would cost a lot less than a fully functional model.