Thief hits six phone stores in a month, lifts more than $12,000 in smartphones

April 8, 2019 Noah Goldberg

Police are searching for a man who has been stealing smartphones across Brooklyn and Manhattan. Image via Pexels

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A thief with a penchant for smartphones has been terrorizing Brooklyn and Manhattan phone stores, lifting property from six different businesses over a month’s span.

Between Feb. 17 and March 18, the man swiped 12 smartphones and one tablet, totaling about $12,592 in stolen goods, according to police.

Each time, he takes two display phones, either iPhones or Samsung phones. Three times he has stolen from Manhattan stores, and three times he has stolen from Brooklyn stores.

The thief was caught on surveillance footage on March 14 entering a Manhattan AT&T store wearing a black Chicago Bulls hat and a black puffer jacket.

He left the store with two Samsung cellphones and a Samsung Note, together worth about $2,398.

A store representative at the AT&T store said thefts at the store are rare and that display phones are not easily removed. “They would have to have some kind of tool that they would have to take it off or rip it off,” the representative said.

The interborough phone thief has no tools, and simply rips the phones from their cases, police said.