Apple is tracking iPhones stolen by looters

Apple has an eerie message for the looters who have pillaged its stores during recent protests: 

We’re watching you.

Thieves who made off with iPhones from ransacked Apple retail locations in recent days quickly learned that the gadgets were loaded with special security software, as they displayed a message on their screens indicating that their locations were being monitored.

“Please return to Apple Walnut Street,” read the onscreen message of an iPhone stolen from an Apple store in Philadelphia, according to social media posts. “This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted.”

Apple — which has recently been gearing up to reopen over 100 stores across the United States following an extended closure due to the coronavirus pandemic — saw locations attacked and looted in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Washington.

The looting sprang from a week of civil unrest and protests following the police killing of George Floyd, an event which Apple chief Tim Cook called “senseless” in a memo to employees over the weekend.

“I have heard from so many of you that you feel afraid — afraid in your communities, afraid in your daily lives, and, most cruelly of all, afraid in your own skin,” Cook said in the note, which was published by multiple news outlets.

“To our colleagues in the Black community — we see you,” he added. “You matter, your lives matter, and you are valued here at Apple.”

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