Palo Alto Apple Store Patched Up After Smash & Grab Robbery
PALO ALTO (KPIX 5) -- Customers once again filled the Apple store in Palo Alto, but a large 40-foot section of the iconic front glass wall was boarded up after a smash & grab robbery Sunday.
A damaged SUV was sitting in the police department's impound area after being used as a battering ram in the crime.
"Witnesses reported seeing up to 20 people running from the scene," Palo Alto Police Lieutenant Zach Perron told KPIX 5.
Photos of the scene were put out on social media, showing the SUV in front of the shattered glass facade.
Police say it appeared to be a coordinated attack with drivers and accomplices and on foot converging on the store all at once.
"They went inside the store, ran around for about 45 seconds and grabbled phones and laptops. Whatever they could find and then came out and scattered in all directions," Perron said.
An hour later police arrested two adult suspects who were still in the downtown area – 19-year-old Shaquin Ferbuson, and 18-year-old Erica White of Oakland, plus two juveniles, and booked them all into custody.
Police also recovered another suspect's car near a parking garage, filled with stolen Apple merchandise.
They are still looking for the other suspects.
It was the sixth robbery at the Apple store in Palo alto in the last six months, and one of several robberies at apple stores throughout the bay area this holiday season."
An Apple store on Chestnut Street in San Francisco has been hit twice since Thanksgiving in a similar fashion. Surveillance video from that robbery showed young men in hoodies storming in, grabbing thousands of dollars in products and then running away all within seconds.
Berkeley, Burlingame, Corte Madera and Los Gatos Apple stores have also been hit.
One Apple user doubts the company will lockdown its merchandise, or change the way they do business.
"I think they are going to keep it open, they like that look of being very open, very pretty because it goes with the brand," Apple customer Jonathan Koren said.
Apple would not comment on their security measures, but guards were posted in front of the store for most of the day.
