Anyone waiting on a new iPad mini shipment may have to wait a bit longer.
According to a report Thursday from the New York Post, a pair of thieves swiped 3,600 iPad minis -- a value of about $1.5 million -- from the John K. Kennedy Airport in New York Monday evening. Investigators suspect the incident to be an inside job, with an airport worker having likely let the thieves into the cargo area sometime around 11 p.m.
Authorities are questioning JFK employees, three of which have already performed polygraph tests, according to the Posts' sources. The suspects, however, are still at large.
[Related: Head-to-Head: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 vs. Apple iPad Mini]
The stolen minis were being shipped by a company called Cargo Airport Services, the Post said, which had arrived from China Monday and were slated for distribution around the U.S.
The tablets were stolen using one of the airport's own forklifts, which loaded two pallets full of the iPad minis onto a truck that drove off after being questioned by a JFK employee returning from dinner. Had the airport employee not returned and spotted the suspects, they may have stolen up to three more pallets of the tablets, the Post said.
The JFK cargo building hosting the minis was the same building that was hit during the 1978 Lufthansa heist featured in Martin Scorsese's classic film "Goodfellas," the Post noted.
The iPad mini, a smaller version of Apple's popular iPad tablet, was unveiled in October, sparking the usual mad dash among Apple fans to be the first to get their hands on the new device. The Cupertino tech giant said it sold 3 million tablets, including both the mini and the new fourth-generation, full-sized iPad, within the first three days of their availability.
PUBLISHED NOV. 15, 2012
