Microsoft burgled, only the APPLE iPADS stolen - cops confirm
Choosy thief leaves Redmond gear on the table
A savvy sneak slipped into a Microsoft campus, stole five iPads and left all the Microsoft products untouched, according to cops.
More than $3,000 in Apple kit was nicked from the research and development complex in Mountain View, California, over Christmas. There was no sign of a forced entry at Building 5 on La Avenida Street, whose staff use electronic cards to enter the offices, said Sgt Sean Thompson.
The five fondleslabs - two iPad 2s, two third-generation iPads and an "iPad 4" - were taken from three offices. The latter is understood to be the latest generation of Apple's tablet rather than a secret new device.
Microsoft reported the crime to the police on 2 January but believes the electronics were stolen between 19 and 26 December. Police are waiting for CCTV footage from the campus.
Word of the theft spread after a photograph of a report in the Palo Alto Daily Post - strap line: "news you can't get on the internet" - appeared on websites Imgur and Reddit. The article was not available online, but the story was confirmed to The Reg by the Mountain View Police Department this afternoon. Many netizens had assumed the tale was yet another web hoax.
Friday's local paper report - click to enlarge
Meanwhile, Daily Post writer Angela Ruggiero, whose byline appeared on the story, has also confirmed that the above clipping is not a mock-up.
The iPads may have been the obvious thing to steal in Building 5: that's the place where Microsoft, whose headquarters are in Redmond, develops software for Apple hardware. It's possible the thief has got hold of some unreleased Microsoft apps with his or her Apple devices. The office also houses Microsoft Exchange hosting servers, a less tempting target for a light-fingered thief.
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment. ®
COMMENTS
Priceless
Many years ago, a company I worked for had offices in a really out-of-town (nearest store 1mile) technology park.
One day we had a frantic phone call from the office manager. Thieves had broken into our offices, and then used our computers to break the windows into the office across the hall, and steal their computers.
Re: "Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment".
"Elop is a good CEO" - he went to Nokia - told them they're a burning platform. contrary to myth, Nokia were still very strong. But after the burning platform speech, all their partners and retail channel abandoned them in favour of android. And Elop forced Win Pho 7 on them. And it was an utter disaster.
Now they have Win Pho 8, which is shaping up to be an even bigger disaster. And so Nokia are now bumping along, a shadow of their might when Elop joined them, their stock is junk value.
Elop killed Symbian and Meego and refused to make an Android phone. Now android have over 75% of the market. Elop is the worst CEO of all time.
Re: "Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment".
Nokia Sold 134 million Symbian handsets per year; that was 34 million more than the year before. So they saw 34% growth which is great for a mature product. Elop burns the Symbian platform and up until recently, was still outselling WP. Now Nokia is looking at 12 million handsets a year for sales; not even 10% of where they were. Elop is a terrible CEO. If he really wanted to go to WP shouldn't he of waited until WP8 was out? ALl they did was burn their Symbian customer base and then again with WP7 not seeing WP8 and can't run WP8 apps. It also doesn't help that you can't get the latest SDK from MS unless you produced apps for WP7. Not a way to encourage developers to develop for your platform.
If Symbian was a burning platform, what was and still is WP? WP is more successful than Kin, but look not by much. Look at where Kin is right now. Look at where WP and Windows RT are headed?
Apparently
Apparently according to the news broadcast they found a significant number of additional surface tablets that were unclaimed by staff but linked by serial number to a theft from a Microsoft Store two weeks ago. Police speculate they were left behind by the burglars.
If I had broken in
I would have taken the Apple kit as well, easy to sale on ebay for a good price.
After all 5 ipads among hundreds won't stand out but a couple of surface tablets on ebay would be a red flag to anyone, after all they only sold half a dozen or so,
