Thieves Steal $1.5M Worth of iPad Minis from JFK Airport

Crooks stole 3,600 iPad Minis–worth a total of $1.5 million–from a building at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. Ironically, the building where the goods were stored was the scene of the heist in the movie Goodfellas.

The New York Post’s Philip Messing and Josh Margolin first broke the story, writing, “A pair of brazen crooks punched another hole in the lax JFK security when they stole a trove of new Apple iPad minis — worth $1.5 million — from the same cargo building that was the site of the 1978 Lufthansa heist featured in “GoodFellas,” The Post has learned. The crooks struck shortly before midnight on Monday and used one of the airport’s own forklifts to load two pallets of the tablet computers into a truck, according to law-enforcement sources. They might have gotten more, but the thieves drove off leaving three more pallets of the Apple tablets behind after they were challenged by an airport worker returning from dinner.”

TechCrunch’s Darrell Etherington noted, “The iPad minis had just reached the U.S. from Apple’s assembly partners in China, and were destined for delivery across the U.S. Apple is known to be shipping out its first batch of LTE iPad minis this week, so it’s possible this shipment was part of that rollout. If so, it’s possible that means 3,600 expectant Apple fans are going to be disappointed, but Apple could also very theoretically redirect stock destined for store shelves to make up the difference.”

The Apple Insider’s Neil Hughes added, “Because the thieves arrived with an official JFK forklift, it’s been speculated that an airport employee may have let them into the area near Building 261 around 11 p.m., and also let them out after the iPad minis were stolen.”

InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman commented, “The JFK iPad Mini caper is a good reminder that mobile professionals need to take care with their mobile gear, lest it be lifted, too.”