Police warn Apple Store Mac buyers: Watch your backs!

“A Houston woman is warning Apple customers to be aware of thieves after she was recently robbed of her purchase,” Jeff McShan reports for KHOU-TV. “‘If they are going to spend money at Apple they need to watch their backs,’ said Gabrielle Alvarado.”

“Alvarado and Jacinda Boudreaux are starting a new business together and visited the Apple store in the Galleria to buy three Mac computers,” McShan reports. “When they left the store they said they were followed by people who were communicating using cell phones. The women did not notice them… ‘That’s the scariest part, I think is that we were followed [to] four or five different stores shopping and we were followed through the mall and never realized it,’ said Alvarado… The women put the computers in the trunk and left the Galleria. From there they headed to a restaurant a couple of miles away. Police said the women were followed there too because when they came back out to their car it had been broken into. Alvarado said she was shocked.”

MacDailyNews Take: So far, it seems pretty obvious and also somewhat humorous that Alvarado was shocked – three Macs paraded through the mall, then thrown in the truck to sit in a restaurant parking lot (the only thing missing was the “Steal me!” sign) – but it gets much less funny as we read on…

“Police said the women were lucky and that at least six Apple customers have been followed home and then held up at gun point,” McShan reports. “Detective Tony Guzman said a recent case involved a mother who was robbed in front of her children by a man who jumped out of a car. ‘Followed her into her driveway and pulled a gun. He didn’t demand her purse. He specifically asked for the Apple computer she recently purchased,’ said Guzman. Blewis Lawson confessed to the robbery, Guzman said.

McShan reports, “Two other men, Kenneth Williams and Brandon Jackson, helped with the surveillance and then put the stolen computer for sale on Craigslist, Guzman said. And the crime spree didn’t stop there, he said. ‘Once the sell was being conducted and they would meet with the buyer, they would rob the buyer,’ said Guzman.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Scary and sad, but – thinking of workable solutions – yet another reason to help support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by purchasing your Mac and other gear via any of our links to Apple Store Online. Let’s be careful out there!

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “macmom42” for the heads up.]