Thieves Rappel From Best Buy Ceiling to Steal $26,000 Worth of MacBooks

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Posted March 4, 2010 at 6:08pm by iClarified

Thieves cut a hole in the roof and rappelled down into a Best Buy, without touching the ground, to steal $26,000 worth of Apple notebook computers, reports NJ.com.

Amazingly the bandits performed the whole heist without setting off alarms or being caught on tape.

On top of the building, they used a saw to cut through several inches of rubber and insulation, then sliced a 3-foot-wide square in the metal roof.

Once inside, the burglars dropped 16 feet to 10-foot-tall racks — avoiding contact with the floor, where motion sensors would have set off an alarm. They snatched the notebooks from the racks, then went back out through the roof.

Avoiding store security cameras by choosing a spot where the cameras were obscured by advertising banners, the thieves managed to grab $26,000 in laptop computers and departed down a 3-inch gas pipe that runs from the roof to the ground outside the store.

"High level of sophistication," said Detective James Ryan, a police department spokesman. "They never set off any motion sensors. They never touched the floor. They rappelled in and rappelled out."

Employees discovered the missing laptops when they arrived to work this morning.

Thieves Rappel From Best Buy Ceiling to Steal $26,000 Worth of MacBooks

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t11chb - March 5, 2010 at 11:54am

I'll have on or two!

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gmack - March 5, 2010 at 9:40am

So I know intimately the details of Best Buy security..because I am the vendor here in Canada for them. The motion sensors employed are designed to detect movement at the 8' and below level. In Canada, several robberies by way of rooftop have occured in the past...thus, in Canada ONLY, they deploy motion sensors specifically designed to detect movement from the ceiling level. It is rather an expensive exercise as there need to be 20 or more sensors located on both sides of the store.

Jay - March 4, 2010 at 9:08pm

FAKE! Motion sensors aren't in the floors at Best Buy, this isn't Mission Impossible. Best Buy uses Wall mount motion detectors. Any idea on what floor sensors cost to cover a square foot? Ya about $1000. Any idea on how many square feet a Best Buy store is? Well frankly so big they couldn't afford motion sensors.

DNA - March 5, 2010 at 3:58am

No, it's not fake. If you thought about it for a second you would have realized they use motion sensors at "Floor Level". Maybe BestBuy & other stores will take this lesson and add motion sensors to their rooftops, and maybe some video surveillance too. I must admit, I'm very impressed, now lets see if they were smart enough to not be caught on tape scoping the place out...we'll see if they get busted dumping the stolen goods now.

Iphonejohnny - March 5, 2010 at 6:35am

Definatley not fake. I worked for an electronic distributor and they did the same thing thru thr roof. Motion sensors are installed at about 9 feet off the floor and point out horizontaly and down ,not up. These types of buildings have 20 foot cielings where racking is used to stack invevtory higher than what motion sensors can detect. Eventually people will get it and secure the whole place. Not just the floor level.

Jose Mesona - March 4, 2010 at 6:49pm

$26,000 worth... so they stole 3 of them?

Kelvin - March 4, 2010 at 8:24pm

3 laptops? does each laptop cost $8600 in ur country? They stole around 13 laptops i guess. each one around $1300

Sparkster - March 4, 2010 at 10:55pm

Dude, he was just joking. I'd worry more about our own math skills, anyway...

mada - March 4, 2010 at 6:45pm

Nice job. Finally some smart thieves showing their presence.