Well who would’ve thought that even Apple’s co-founder,
Steve Jobs could get robbed! While Apple fanboys all over the world were busy
watching the iPhone 5 rumor mill churn, the deceased iPhone maker’s home in Waverley
Street, Palo Alto was apparently burglarized. Don’t worry, the guy didn’t steal
patents and historical Steve Jobs mementos; we think he decided to break into someone’s
house to see if he could steal and sell iPhone 4S. And no, the iThief (as the tech press fondly
calls him) isn’t an Apple fanboy who would like to take a tour of the genius’
study room. He actually had no idea it was Steve Jobs’ house! (Well he did find
out eventually through a letter he found lying somewhere in the house addressed
to Jobs.)
The 35 year old burglar named Kariem McFarlin was arrested on
August 2 for residential burglary and attempting to sell iPhone 4 and other stolen property
that amounted to more than $60,000. He is now facing charges that could lead to
seven years and eight months of imprisonment and half a million dollar for bail
in the Santa Clara county jail. The iThief also faces a one year enhancement for
“excessive taking of property” and was prosecuted five days after the said
burglary.
So how was the iThief arrested? Apparently, it was Apple’s
investigators who successfully tracked down McFarlin, a former San Jose State
Football player. Police reports stated that McFarlin used the stolen Apple
devices to connect to his iTunes account leading the Apple investigators to
identify him using his IP address. The police arrested him in his Alameda
apartment where they found an iMac, a Mac Mini, a demo-sized MacBook and Apple
TV device. The iThief also reportedly gave his daughter one of the three iPads
he found in Jobs’ residence and decided to sell iPhone units also stolen from the former
CEO’s house. He also took Steve Jobs’ wallet that contained a number of credit
cards (including an Apple issued company credit card) and his driver’s license,
a soda maker, a Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, a blender and a bottle of
fancy champagne.
The police report detailed that Steve Jobs’ home, which was
considered a Mecca for techies all over the world, was being renovated when it
was burglarized on July 17. McFarlin reportedly entered the Jobs’ residence by
climbing a scaffolding and hopping off a 6-foot fence after the construction crew
left. He apparently found a spare key somewhere in the garage and walked in to
the house finding out it was deserted. Later that night he used Jobs’ MacBook
to find out how to sell iPhone and jewelry on Google. The iThief has reportedly shipped the
stolen jewelry to Pennsylvania which included a platinum and aquamarine-bead
necklace worth $33,000, a platinum necklace with 247 5-carat diamonds and 9
carved aquamarine drops worth $28,500 and a pair of earrings worth $2,950.
The Job’s residence was not the only house robbed in the
Palo Alto area. The Silicon Valley community reported a 63 percent rise in burglaries
within this year and police are becoming more and more relentless in reminding
people to lock their doors and install alarms.
Wow, it’s pretty amusing to know that he didn’t know whose house was he breaking into because Steve Jobs is quite the household name. Too bad for this iThief that the iWorld is a little too advanced than he thinks and that he had no idea that he can be traced.
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