Thanks to a quartet of Los Angeles thieves, we now know that the front end of a BMW X5 can make an effective battering ram against an Apple Store, which they looted after busting through the front window, swiping as many i-goods as possible and then fleeing. This is not how you pre-order an iPhone 5.
Police in Riverside County were holding Equonne R. Howard, 22, on $600,000 bail and three theft charges, after he was apprehended Wednesday morning hours after the attempted BMW-Apple integration. According to police, the group hit the Temecula, Calif., Apple Store about 5 a.m. on Sept. 6, in an attack that lasted less than two minutes, using a 2003 BMW X5 as a door knocker.
State registration papers list Howard as the owner of the X5, and police say he ditched it a couple of hours after the robbery due to two flat tires; you can see in the video where the X5 repeatedly rams the Apple Store's security gate and takes out some display tables trying to escape. According to The Press-Enterprise, Howard is also accused of swiping a can of fix-a-flat from a 7-11 in a bid to reboot his getaway.
The three other Steve Jobs fanboys who lept from the SUV to swipe the devices remain at large. Had they waited a week, they would have known the iPhones they committed a felony to steal had their prices cut by more than half with the introduction of the new iPhone 5 on Wednesday. If caught, these geniuses will likely spend time behind a different set of bars.
