difenbaker
06-23-2007, 03:44 AM
Armed Robbers Hit T-Mobile, Make Off With $50,000 In Cell Phones
by Bob Dunn, Jun 22, 2007, 12 09 PM
Armed robbers walked into a local T-Mobile store Thursday afternoon, forced employees to open a safe and then made off with about $50,000 worth of cell phones, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department said.
Sheriff’s investigators said they believe three suspects in the robbery are responsible for numerous other robberies at T-Mobile stores in the Houston area.
Sheriff’s deputies were called at 4:50 p.m. to a T-Mobile authorized activation center at 9750 State Highway 6 South, in Atterbury Plaza north of Sugar Land and just west of the Harris County line, according to a sheriff’s report.
Witnesses said three men had entered the store and began looking at phones. When a store clerk offered assistance, two of the men pulled out guns “and demanded the ‘good’ phones and the camera tapes,” the sheriff’s report said.
On orders by the gunmen, two store clerks “got down on the ground and crawled to the back office, where the suspects tied them up with plastic zip ties,” the sheriff’s report said. A third clerk in the business office was ordered to open a safe, which contained cell phones in boxes.
The robbers emptied the contents of the safe into black plastic trash bags and left the store. The sheriff’s department estimated the phones’ value at about $50,000.
But a T-Mobile employee at a nearby store indicated the stolen phones won’t retain their value.
That’s because most stores, and especially the one that was robbed “because that’s a pretty big store,” closely track their inventory. Store owners routinely know the serial number on every phone they hold in inventory. And those serial numbers would show up if the phone is used – on the account of the person making the call.
“If the (store owner) is tracking their serial numbers and you make a call on one of their phones, the next day you’ll be getting a call from an investigator,” the store employee said.
more here:
http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/3045/armed-robbers-hit-t-mobile-store-make-off-with-50000-in-cell-phones
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by Bob Dunn, Jun 22, 2007, 12 09 PM
Armed robbers walked into a local T-Mobile store Thursday afternoon, forced employees to open a safe and then made off with about $50,000 worth of cell phones, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department said.
Sheriff’s investigators said they believe three suspects in the robbery are responsible for numerous other robberies at T-Mobile stores in the Houston area.
Sheriff’s deputies were called at 4:50 p.m. to a T-Mobile authorized activation center at 9750 State Highway 6 South, in Atterbury Plaza north of Sugar Land and just west of the Harris County line, according to a sheriff’s report.
Witnesses said three men had entered the store and began looking at phones. When a store clerk offered assistance, two of the men pulled out guns “and demanded the ‘good’ phones and the camera tapes,” the sheriff’s report said.
On orders by the gunmen, two store clerks “got down on the ground and crawled to the back office, where the suspects tied them up with plastic zip ties,” the sheriff’s report said. A third clerk in the business office was ordered to open a safe, which contained cell phones in boxes.
The robbers emptied the contents of the safe into black plastic trash bags and left the store. The sheriff’s department estimated the phones’ value at about $50,000.
But a T-Mobile employee at a nearby store indicated the stolen phones won’t retain their value.
That’s because most stores, and especially the one that was robbed “because that’s a pretty big store,” closely track their inventory. Store owners routinely know the serial number on every phone they hold in inventory. And those serial numbers would show up if the phone is used – on the account of the person making the call.
“If the (store owner) is tracking their serial numbers and you make a call on one of their phones, the next day you’ll be getting a call from an investigator,” the store employee said.
more here:
http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/3045/armed-robbers-hit-t-mobile-store-make-off-with-50000-in-cell-phones
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