On Wednesday, May 9, at 4:15 a.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were working the early morning watch patrol when they received notification that an audible alarm was sounding at the Apple Store, located at 1248 Third Street Promenade.
When the officers arrived, they discovered the front door of the premises had been smashed in, and they also noticed there was a sledgehammer lying on the ground nearby.
The officers then entered the Apple Store and saw that there were many empty spaces where usually there would be Apple products, and that the security tags were just hanging loose.
The officers then reviewed security video of the store and saw that four people – two men and two women – who all appeared to be in their 20s, had stolen the items after smashing the door with the sledgehammer.
Three of these suspects had fled northbound on the Third Street Promenade while the fourth ran southbound out of sight. The officers then searched the surrounding area and found a bag that contained several Apple computers and iPhones that had been hidden behind a wall at 233 Wilshire Boulevard.
The value of the products in the bag was approximately $31,000. As the officers were investigating further they saw a tan colored Chevrolet Impala that they deemed to be suspicious.
This Impala was heading northbound on Third Street from Wilshire Boulevard, and the officers observed two females in the front seats who resembled the ones depicted in the security video that they had reviewed earlier.
The officers stopped the vehicle and saw two males in the back seat.
Coincidentally these two men resembled the two who had also appeared in the aforementioned security video.
The females were wearing clothes that looked strangely like the clothes worn by the women in the video and, after finding other incriminating evidence inside the vehicle, the officers decided that these were quite probably the Apple Store bandits.
The officers arrested this foursome and they were booked on the following charges: Female aged 19 of Los Angeles for burglary and conspiracy to commit a crime (bail $20,000); Female juvenile aged 17 for burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime, and providing false information to an officer (no bail granted); Male aged 19 and a resident of Los Angeles for burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime, unauthorized entry, and a juvenile warrant for grand theft from a person (no bail granted); Male aged 18, resident of Los Angeles for burglary, conspiracy to commit a crime, and providing false information to an officer (bail $20,000).
